Name the date for strikes in autumn, say delegates

Louise Nousratpour, Equalities Reporter in London
Friday July 01, 2011
The Morning Star

TUC LGBT Conference: Public servants fresh from Thursday's picket lines called on union leaders today to "name the date" for a million-strong strike in the autumn amid thunderous applause from the floor.

Delegates at the TUC lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender conference in London heard from speakers who had missed Thursday's debates because they were on pickets and rallies across Britain.

Refuting right-wing claims that the strike had little public support, lecturers' union UCU delegate Pura Ariza said: "Workers, parents, children, students and anti-cuts campaigners joined our 5,000-strong strike rally in Manchester."

Civil Service union PCS rep Jeff Grist reported that 84 per cent of the 250,000 PCS members balloted took part in the strike. "We also recruited 170 new members," he said.

Conference heard that prison officers' union POA members had held lunchtime protest meetings in solidarity and Unison members working in schools had refused to cross picket lines.

POA delegate Stewart McLaughlin thanked the strikers for "losing a day's pay to stand up for my pension.

"Current legislation makes it a criminal offence for POA to take any form of industrial action even though our pension is in the same boat as other public-sector workers."

Mr McLaughlin said the POA was prepared to take the "nuclear option" of breaking the law unless ministers changed course.

Ms Ariza called on union leaders to use the momentum to bring down the "weak and divided" government.

"Name the date for strikes in autumn - we're ready to fight," she said to thunderous applause.

Julia Neal, whose union ATL went on strike for the first time in its 127-year history, said: "We must keep the issue alive and continue the action until we win."