Firm action at last on striking trade unions
The Government has responded to the wave of strikes by announcing new laws designed to ensure a minimum service is provided by unions and their members. Ministers had already begun this legislative process in the transport industry. But its progress has been glacial, with no impact on the current action on the railways, which were brought to a halt again yesterday when drivers belonging to Aslef joined RMT members in a walkout.
Grant Shapps, the Business Secretary, said the laws would be extended beyond transport and also cover health, education, fire, border security and nuclear power. Unions failing to comply face legal action while workers refusing to provide the minimum service could be sacked. The levels would need to be agreed between the Government and the unions, with disputes going to arbitration.
Of course, in a free country workers have a right to strike but there are consequences to exercising it. Taxpayers also have a right to expect services for which they pay to be delivered at least to a minimum agreed standard.
Mandatory minimum-service levels in transport services already exist in other countries, including France and Spain. By extending the scope of these laws, the Government is showing its readiness to defend consumers against union blackmail. At the same time, however, ministers are offering an olive branch by shelving other proposed measures to make unions obtain greater backing from members before taking strike action.
Inevitably, Labour and its union paymasters have denounced the planned laws. But how is it unreasonable to expect ambulance drivers, for instance, to transport ill people to hospital?
The Government is digging in against pay demands from NHS staff for increases beyond those recommended by independent reviews. So far, ministers have declined to intervene in the rail dispute. But they need to make the argument for restraint and innovation more robustly.
Certainly, the new measures pose a challenge to Labour, whose leader Sir Keir Starmer pledged to repeal them. He is trying to present himself as a new Tony Blair yet the party’s most successful leader did not reverse a single Thatcher-era union law, not least because they were popular with the public. We are witnessing some of the most disruptive industrial action seen since the 1970s. If Labour opposes these laws, voters will know whose side the party is on.