The British government wants to restrict the right to strike in order to break up labour disputes, writes JungeWelt
The UK government on Thursday published a law to drastically limit strikes in transport. The law requires a minimum of public transport service to be organised during strikes, otherwise unions will lose all legal guarantees. The law is due to come into force in spring 2023. The unions see this as undermining the right to strike.
Communication Workers Union (CWU) workers, including British Telecom (BT) employees, also went on strike on Monday. They walked off the job for 24 hours.
Unite spokesman Willie Howard stressed that the government was trying to change the rules of the game through legislation. “The bill paves the way for the introduction of minimum service levels for transport services as they have already been introduced in other countries including France and Spain. The bill will ensure that some transport services, which could include for example trains, subways and buses, are not shut down completely if unions call a strike,” Howard said.
Three more national strike days have been reported for railway workers. Rail services are to remain in place across the country in November. At national work stoppages in October, 90 per cent of rail services have already been cancelled.