A union boss has warned that if the government introduces laws to block industrial action could backfire which will end up seeing longer strikes.
Aslef general secretary, Mick Whelan warned the government that if they set legal limits on how many people can on the picket line, this means unions will most likely launch strikes lasting a lot longer than what we are seeing now.
It has been reported that the Prime Minister is thinking about measures which will allow businesses to sue unions and have workers sacked if staff do not provide a level of service required.
The anti-strike laws could be introduced within days, Whelan said and then warned that unions will take the government to court over the laws.
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Whelan told the PA news agency, “We’ve had minimum service levels in countries all over Europe for years (but) it’s never been enacted, because logistically it doesn’t work.
“I haven’t seen the legislation, but what I’ve garnered is that we would have to negotiate with each different company a minimum strike level.
“If say the strike minimum levels were 20%, we were told in the past that we didn’t run full railway services during the fire brigade strike and the railway was unsafe, so we’d be doing something unsafe.
“Also, would we have to take more day’s action, to equate to the same level of effect that we have from one day now?
“Coming to the table will resolve this – threatening us with sacking or more pernicious legislation when we already have the worst trade union legislation in Europe, isn’t going to solve the issue.”
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