EUROPEAN trade unionists on Friday slammed government attacks on the right to strike and vowed to set up a “solidarity network” to provide rapid support to unions under attack.

The emergency resolution to the European Trade Union Confederation Congress in the German capital, Berlin, moved by the TUC, said: “The right to strike is a democratic right and intrinsic to the right to organise and collectively bargain.”

The resolution drew attention to the “draconian legislation” in Britain that would “allow government ministers to force workers to attend work during strike action,” but also pointed out that attacks on the right to strike were not restricted to Britain.

TUC assistant general secretary Kate Bell said: “The UK may have left the European Union, but the bonds of solidarity that link workers across Europe can never be broken.”

In Belgium several union members were convicted for taking strike action and “there have been recent court rulings against union members and striking workers.”

The ETUC said: “Unions must robustly defend our democratic rights and freedoms.”

The solidarity network is intended to support unions under attack “due to employer hostility in collective bargaining or industrial disputes.”