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Len McCluskey: we could break law to strike Len McCluskey: unions ready to defy law over public sector pay cap
(about 9 hours later)
The general secretary of Unite has said the prospect of mass industrial unrest over public sector pay is becoming very likely and that his union could be willing to break the law to go on strike. Len McCluskey has threatened to break the law over the government’s failure to scrap the public sector pay cap for all workers, claiming that anyone who is prepared to do so would be following in the footsteps of Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi and the suffragettes.
Len McCluskey told the BBC he would disregard what he called the “artificial threshold” imposed by the government, which insists on a turnout of 50% for a strike ballot to be legal. After Jeremy Corbyn and a succession of union leaders criticised an offer from ministers to increase pay only for police and prison officers, the leader of Britain’s biggest union, Unite, said unions must be prepared to back their members in the face of wrong laws.
The Conservative government changed the law in March to require that level of support from a union membership for industrial action to go ahead. McCluskey, whose union is Labour’s most generous donor, said he was ready to defy legal requirements in pursuit of a fair pay rise for public sector workers.
“If the government has pushed us outside the law, they will have to stand the consequences,” the union leader told the Radio 4 Today programme on Tuesday. “In terms of the concept of a coordinated public service workers’ action, yes I think that’s very likely and very much on the cards. If the government has pushed us outside the law, they will have to stand the consequences,” he said.
He said coordinated action from public sector workers was “very likely and very much on the cards”. Following the introduction of trade union legislation which requires a 50% ballot turnout, the need to always act inside the law has been removed from the union’s rule book, he said.
Speaking earlier at the annual Trades Union Congress conference, he reminded supporters that the need to always act inside the law had been removed from the union’s rule book. McCluskey said he and other union members might be willing to go to jail and could follow other historic figures by standing by their principles. “The reality is that the law is wrong and it has to be resisted. I dare say if you’d have been interviewing Nelson Mandela or Mahatma Gandhi or the suffragettes you’d be telling them that they were breaking the law.”
“We took that out because we know that if the bosses and the privileged elite want to push us outside the law, so be it. It won’t stop us standing up,” he said. It follows a cabinet agreement on Tuesday that police would receive a 2% pay rise for 2017-18 – half of which is a one-off “non-consolidated” bonus – and prison officers an average 1.7% rise. But the increases offered by ministers will still be lower than the rate of inflation, which at 2.9% has risen faster than economists expected – meaning the offer is a real-terms reduction.
Jeremy Corbyn will address the conference on Tuesday afternoon in Brighton, but he will be under pressure to say whether he would support breaking the law to challenge the government over the public sector pay cap. The Prison Officers’ Association has rejected the offer and is planning to coordinate an indicative ballot of members alongside the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) to see if members will support a strike.
In a speech to the conference, the Labour leader will urge young workers to ignore the way unions are “demonised” in the press and to safeguard their rights, particularly in the gig economy, by joining one. The pay announcement is unlikely to quell discontent in many parts of the public sector, including the NHS, with the Royal College of Nursing threatening strike action and the University and College Union (UCU) consulting their lecturer members over pay.
“If you want a job that pays a decent wage, gives you the chance to get on in life, live independently and enjoy your work, then join a trade union. Do it today,” Corbyn will say. “I know, it’s a shock that billionaire, tax-dodging press barons don’t like trade unions. And they don’t like us because our movement challenges unaccountable power of both government and bosses.” Many public sector unions backed a motion put before the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference on Monday for a 5% increase for all public sector staff, which would cost the Treasury £9bn.
The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, refused four times to say whether he would back illegal strike action. Mark Serwotka, the leader of the PCS, said the government offer was a “pile of crap” and said he might be prepared to break the law under certain circumstances. “The law is wrong, but our union’s response really does depend on the response we get from our own indicative ballot for industrial action from our members,” he said.
“We support trade unions and the campaigns of people to get the public sector pay cap scrapped. It’s for the trade unions to decide what actions they take,” he told Today. The UCU also plans to consult its members over possible industrial action. At least 12 unions have condemned the pay offer but most have taken a more cautious position than McCluskey and Serwotka.
Other unions have taken a more cautious line, with Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, saying a general strike would be a “last resort”. Frances O’Grady, the TUC general secretary, said a general strike would be a last resort.
However, major unions passed a motion at the conference calling for joint action against the 1% public sector pay cap. The GMB said the extra money for prison officers and police will come from existing departmental budgets – rather than new central government funding – meaning public services will be hit harder.
The composite motion called for “immediate steps to develop a coordinated strategy of opposition to the pay cap … including … pay demands, campaign activities, tactics, ballots and industrial action”. Rehana Azam, the GMB national secretary for public services, said: “The idea that we have to choose between decent pay for public sector workers and properly funded services is a false choice.”
Ministers are expected to ease the cap for prison officers and police in the coming days but Theresa May is under pressure to end the seven-year freeze for teachers, nurses and other public sector workers. The Unison general secretary, Dave Prentis, said it was “a tiny step” in the right direction but not enough. “There must be no selective lifting of the cap. No one part of the public sector is any more deserving than the rest,” he said.
John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, has led Labour calls for an end to the cap. “The pay cap must now be lifted across the whole public sector rather than by playing one group of workers off against another,” he said. Major unions passed a motion at congress on Monday calling for joint action against the 1% public sector pay cap. The composite motion called for “immediate steps to develop a coordinated strategy of opposition to the pay cap … including … pay demands, campaign activities, tactics, ballots and industrial action”.
The PCS, which represents civil servants, is balloting all of its members on industrial action, a move which will be followed by the Prison Officers’ Association and the University and College Union. Privately, some senior union figures accused McCluskey and Serwotka of “grandstanding”, and claim neither would break the law and would struggle to get enough support for a strike.
The proposed ballots are indicative, but can be used to gauge support across the membership for future industrial action. “They are both looking for cheap headlines. This will be hammered out with the government in the usual way,” one said.
On Monday, Mark Serwotka, the head of the PCS, urged other public sector unions to consider balloting their members. He told TUC delegates: “Wouldn’t it be great if we could have coordinated ballots in the run-up to the budget.” Senior Labour figures are steering clear of offering their support for illegality in pursuit of improved pay and conditions.
McCluskey has threatened to break the law several times since the government first threatened in 2015 to introduce a 40% threshold for strike ballots on public service union members. The rule, which was part of the trade union bill, has now passed into law. The shadow justice secretary, Richard Burgon, refused four times to say whether he would back illegal strike action. “We support trade unions and the campaigns of people to get the public sector pay cap scrapped. It’s for the trade unions to decide what actions they take,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
He told delegates at a fringe event on Sunday that he would be willing to break the law, and claimed the union had put aside £36m in case it got involved in lengthy disputes. “In relation to the question of turnouts in strike ballots, what we have always been supportive of is encouraging as many people to vote as possible. What a Labour government would do would be to repeal the Trade Union Act which is seeking to stop trade unions from taking action to stop ordinary people ... from suffering a 14% pay cut in real terms,” he said.
The Liberal Democrat leader, Vince Cable, called for the cap to be lifted across the board. He added: “Nurses, teachers and other public sector workers are set to be hundreds of pounds worse off in real terms as a result of rising inflation. Unless urgent action is taken, the recruitment crisis in nursing and teaching will only get worse.”