Banning workers from striking will be a 'catastrophic mistake', warns union boss
7 December 2022, 19:22
The government toughening laws to potentially ban workers from striking will be a "catastrophic mistake", a union boss has warned.
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General Secretary of the PCS Union Mark Serwotka said the move would only lead to growing resentment.
It comes after the union announced that Border Force workers would go strike over Christmas in a row over pay, jobs and conditions.
Speaking on LBC's Tonight with Andrew Marr, Mr Serwotka said: "It can’t be that every paramedic, job centre worker or border force officer is wrong – surely it must be that the government is wrong to think that it can ignore poverty and they need to do something about it."
He added: "I don’t think the government's doing a very good job at the moment.
"It isn’t my job to try and bring down a government but it is my job to try to get the government to change course when that course is so disastrous for millions of people.
"At the moment, I think the government lacks direction, and if its answer is a knee-jerk make it harder to go on strike, I think they'd be making another catastrophic mistake."
Mark Serwotka condemns the government's 'untenable position'
He went on to say: "The answer here must be to ask why dedicated public sector workers – from postal workers, to paramedics to job centre workers - are voting to strike in unprecedented numbers.
"It's because the people that are voting to strike are desperate, their families are desperate, and the government knows it but chooses at the moment to turn the other way.
"As this action builds, turning the other way will become unsustainable for the government – they're going to have to do something about it.
"Why not get on and do that now and try and avert the strikes?"
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Simon Calder and Andrew Marr discuss border force strikes
The PCS General Secretary said workers were "paying the price for a crisis they didn't cause".
The upcoming PCS strikes include dates from the 23rd to the 31st of December and will affect Birmingham Airport, Cardiff Airport, Gatwick Airport, Glasgow Airport, Manchester Airport, Heathrow terminals 2, 3, 4, 5, and the Port of Newhaven.
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As many as a fifth of Christmas holiday flights could be axed, the Telegraph reports.
The move is likely to spark the return of chaotic scenes at airports that hit when Covid-19 restrictions were lifted earlier this year and there was a lack of trained staff to meet demand.
The PCS union has already announced strikes at the Department for Work and Pensions, the Highways Agency and among driving examiners.
