The Tories Are Trying to Cripple Rail Workers’ Ability to Strike
On Thursday, the Conservative UK government published a new bill that would impose draconian restrictions on rail workers’ right to strike — aiming to punish rail unions for their recent militancy and make future strikes as difficult as possible.
A rail worker picket line outside Euston Station in London on October 5, 2022. (Justin Tallis / AFP via Getty Images)
On Thursday, as the Tories continued their implosion, the British government also published its proposed Transport Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill.
Ministers have been briefing that such bills are common through Europe — citing the examples of France, Spain, and Germany, all of which have minimum service level requirements during strikes. It’s true that other countries have these rules, but they sit within a different industrial-relations framework.
In France, the right to strike is protected by law. Unions may strike at any time. The country has no equivalent of the UK’s statutory restrictions on strikes, no mandatory pre-strike ballots, no ban on secondary action, no insistence that strike votes are held by post, no turnout requirement banning strikes unless 50 percent of eligible workers vote, etc.
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