TUC general secretary PAUL NOWAK speaks to the Morning Star’s Berny Torre about the increasing frustration the trade union movement feels at a government that promised change, but has been too slow to bring it about

TWENTY twenty has shown us, if nothing else, the value of belonging to a union. When our bosses and our government let us down it’s to our unions we turned.
The most powerful tool at the disposal of organised labour is the strike. The strike serves many purposes including: demanding concessions of capital, and perhaps more importantly, realising worker power through disrupting capital through what Tronti referred to as a “refusal to work.”
Strikes develop class consciousness and by emphasising the collective power of workers they build solidarity.
![Strike Map activists visit striking refuse workers in Birmingham, April 29, 2025 [Pic: Strike Map]]( https://dev.morningstaronline.co.uk/sites/default/files/styles/low_resolution/public/2025-05/DSC_0753.JPG.webp?itok=UCYB6Qpj)
As Birmingham’s refuse workers fight brutal pay cuts, Strike Map rallies mass solidarity, with unions, activists, and workers converging to defy scab labour and police intimidation. The message to Labour? Back workers or face rebellion, writes HENRY FOWLER and ROBERT POOLE


