Birmingham’s striking bin workers and supporters bring waste sites to a standstill
UNIONS vowed as one to defy the Tories’ Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act in the first TUC special congress since 1982 at the weekend.
Congress voted unanimously that unions would refuse to tell their members to cross picket lines — a commitment not to comply with the repressive legislation’s diktat that unions take “reasonable steps” to ensure their members comply with work notices issued ordering named individuals to break strikes.
A general council statement specified 15 action points the entire TUC agreed to, pledging to back any worker targeted in a work notice, mount legal challenges to the new laws, and demand employers commit not to issue work notices.
Ben Chacko talks to RMT leader EDDIE DEMPSEY about how the key to fixing broken Britain lies in collective sectoral bargaining, restoring unions’ ability to take solidarity strike action and bringing about the much-vaunted ‘wave of insourcing’
Incoming Usdaw general secretary JOANNE THOMAS talks to Ben Chacko about workers’ rights, Labour and how to arrest the decline of the high street
Durham Miners’ Association general secretary ALAN MARDGHUM speaks to Ben Chacko ahead of Gala Day 2025
