FBU national officer Riccardo la Torre says a united movement of resistance can render the anti-strike law inoperable
Thousands of protesters, including FBU members from across the country, congregated in London’s Parliament Square on Monday 22 May to demonstrate growing anger as the Conservative government forced through its latest attack on working people.
As the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill proceeds to Royal Assent, this demonstration was only the beginning of workers’ resistance. Speaking at the event FBU general secretary Matt Wrack said: “We are seeing a workers’ revolt against a hard right government with no mandate for its policies. That revolt will continue whatever happens today.”
The Bill is an authoritarian attempt FBU national officer Riccardo la Torre says a united movement of resistance can render the anti-strike law inoperable to effectively outlaw strike action in a number of sectors, including fire and rescue.
It serves only to strengthen those who want to see collective bargaining undermined, wages kept low and conditions kept poor.
The government is intent on driving down wages and silencing workers who fight for better pay and conditions.
PAY DISPUTE SETTLEMENT
Without the right to strike, it is hard to see how the FBU could have achieved the settlement to the pay dispute earlier this year. There would have been little incentive for employers to get back around the negotiating table.
The past year has witnessed an inspiring wave of industrial action, with workers striking for decent pay in the face of a cost of living crisis.
Rather than give nurses, rail workers and other workers a decent pay offer, the government is seeking to attack their basic rights.
The undemocratic and authoritarian nature of the legislation has been well documented by MPs, members of the House of Lords, civil society organisations and trade unions.
The right to strike was hard won, and it is the duty of trade unions and opposition MPs to protect it.
The Bill is an authoritarian attempt to effectively outlaw strike action in a number of sectors, including fire and rescue
On 8 June, the House of Lords again debated the Bill, with Conservative MPs pushing the legislation through in spite of continued objections.
The Lords have a duty to stop the government forcing unions to undermine their own strikes, stop workers being fired for not complying with “work notices”, and limit the scope of the Bill to England under the powers of dissolved administrations.
Unfortunately, the current size of the Tory majority means that the Bill seems to be heading towards becoming law in its most authoritarian form.
Whatever the result in parliament, the real power and legitimacy is with workers, and the FBU will fiercely resist this onslaught on our democratic rights. This government knows it is in its dying days – it has no mandate for this legislation.
The FBU has already taken steps to resist the Bill. At Scottish TUC, Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf pledged that the Scottish Government would never issue a work notice.
The FBU will push to ensure that this promise is honoured, and has encouraged the Welsh Senedd to make the same commitment.
This would not only render the Bill ineffective in much of Scotland and Wales, but would lay the groundwork for other employers, including those in the fire and rescue service, to make similar commitments.
Meanwhile, the Labour Party has repeatedly pledged its commitment to overturn this Bill when it returns to government.
At FBU conference in May, the party’s deputy leader Angela Rayner reiterated Labour’s opposition to the Bill, and pledged to repeal it within 100 days of the next Labour government.
Trade unionists must make sure their local Labour MPs and parliamentary candidates adhere to these promises.
NATIONAL MOVEMENT
A national movement of mass non-compliance could also be pivotal to rendering this Bill useless. For some months now, the FBU has been pushing the TUC to lead a movement of resistance and non-compliance.
Following a resolution at our conference, the FBU is also now committed to convening a rank and file conference to coordinate these efforts across the trade union movement.
This strategy is not about any one group of workers taking a stand on their own, but about building a unified strategy of mass resistance that can make this law inoperable and stop it dead in its tracks.
Parliament will, eventually, pass the Bill. When that happens, the resistance will begin. We will place maximum pressure on fire service employers and devolved administrations not to implement it; we will ensure that Labour repeals it; and we will begin the task of building a movement of resistance that can render it inoperable.
