THE Minimum Service Levels Act is one of the most significant attacks on working people in a generation.  

Under the new anti-strike legislation, “minimum service regulations” in fire and rescue, health, education, transport, nuclear decommissioning and border security will enable employers to require designated workers to attend work on strike days — despite a democratic and lawful vote for strike action; workers will be required to undermine their own demands and campaigns.  

Employers will also be granted increased powers to sack union members if they do not work on strike days. Unions will be expected to police members’ attendance at work.  

In these circumstances, we have no choice but to seek to build mass opposition and to develop a strategy of non-compliance and non-co-operation that can make the legislation unenforceable. 

The Fire Brigades Union is committed to bringing together workers and trade unions to plan this campaign.  

Britain already has the most restrictive anti-union laws in Europe, and the Minimum Service Levels Act is yet another blow to our democratic rights. It is in keeping with authoritarian regimes around the world. 

The government is attempting to use this law to strengthen the position of employers and weaken the position of workers. Its motives are not hard to work out. The Tories will always want to drive down wages to allow bosses and big business to cash in.  

Yet even the IMF says that corporate profits, not wages, are the main driver of the current inflation crisis.   

A mixture of austerity, anti-union laws and deregulation mean that real-terms pay in Britain is now at 2005 levels and is still falling. 

Between 2010 and 2020, UK workers experienced the worst decade for wage growth since the Napoleonic wars.  

Right now, workers in many key sectors are under threat from the new anti-union laws. This is an issue for all trade unions and all workers. While legal action may be a legitimate tool in some circumstances, we cannot rely on the courts.  

Real power rests with workers, as the history of the trade union movement has shown. In 1972, when five dockworkers were arrested following the 1971 Industrial Relations Act, a wave of industrial action — much of it unofficial — eventually led to a call for a national strike from the TUC.   

There were factory occupations, the shutdown of national newspapers, a national dockers’ strike and a mass march on Pentonville prison. In the face of growing mass unrest, the authorities released the five, and the new anti-union law was fatally weakened.   

Today, we face a weak government which is clinging on to power. A determined movement of defiance and solidarity could fatally weaken this legislation, too. Reps and members from every union can play a crucial role in building the resistance we need.  

At the Scottish TUC Congress in April, Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf pledged that the Scottish government would not issue a work notice under the Minimum Service Levels Act. 

We must push to ensure that this promise is honoured, and pile pressure on all employers, devolved governments, local authorities, and other employers to follow suit.   

Labour has pledged to repeal this legislation within 100 days of the next Labour government. Trade unionists must make sure their local Labour MPs and parliamentary candidates adhere to these promises.  

The TUC, which is holding its Congress this week, could play a key role in bringing together a unified strategy of mass resistance with the aim of making this law unenforceable.   

This campaign cannot be won by any union acting alone. The right to strike was won through struggle. It is the duty of every trade union and every opposition MP to protect it. 

Matt Wrack is general secretary of the Fire Brigades Union.