New winter of discontent as unions get tough over public pay

A NEW “winter of discontent” looms as the trade unions and UK Government appear on a collision course over public sector pay.

Unite’s Len McCluskey said he would be prepared to break the law to lead a strike, insisting co-ordinated action across several unions was now “very likely”.

After coming under intense public and political pressure, the Government announced it was ending the seven-year public sector pay cap from next year, with ministers given “flexibility” to breach the long-standing limit of one per cent on wage rises.

Downing Street unveiled a 1.7 per cent rise for prison officers and improvements totalling two per cent in police pay for 2017/18 south of the border. The settlements will be met out of existing departmental budgets and implemented immediately.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has already pledged to lift the cap in Scotland.

However, the trade unions branded Theresa May’s move “paltry” and “insulting”. Frances O’Grady, the TUC General Secretary, said it was “pathetic,” coming as inflation hit nearly three per cent.

Mick Cash, leader of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union, decried the Government’s “divide and rule” approach, saying: “If it takes co-ordinated trade union action to secure a fair deal for all, then so be it.”

Labour described the Prime Minister’s offer as “derisory” while Jeremy Corbyn, in his speech to the TUC Congress in Brighton, said Mrs May was trying to “divide people on the cheap” by offering to scrap the pay cap for some but not for others.

“We must be united in breaking the pay cap for all workers,” said the Labour leader.

Mr McCluskey, the leader of Labour’s biggest donor, was asked if

co-ordinated action meant Britain was facing a new “winter of discontent,” replied: “I hope not.

“Everybody, even the Conservative Party itself, recognises the cap on public sector workers has to come to an end… I hope they lift it and allow proper negotiations to take place.

“In the event that doesn’t happen, there is a strong likelihood of co-ordinated industrial action.

“There is a palpable anger running through our nation and in particular with public sector workers, who are being unjustly treated.”

On taking illegal strike action, the Unite leader urged Mrs May “not to push us outside the law,” saying: “If our members are in dispute and have not reached some artificial threshold, I will support our members; if that means we are outside the law, so be it.

“If you were interviewing Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Ghandi or the suffragettes, you’d be telling them they were breaking the law.”