THE Tories’ Trade Union Bill is a “declaration of class war” that trade unionists will need “killer instincts” to resist, the Scottish Morning Star conference heard yesterday.

Institute of Employment Rights director Carolyn Jones warned that the Bill was about “removing opposition to austerity.”

She told the conference that the number of days lost to industrial action was just a fraction of those lost due to workplace injuries, which will only worsen as facility time is cut for reps.

Ms Jones said the media, owned and dominated by a powerful ruling class, was a major challenge for the working class that would attack any opposition to its interests.

She also warned that the European Union would provide no refuge for workers fighting the Conservatives, saying that it was a “neoliberal prison” with austerity and labour movement reforms at its very heart.

Trade union activists must “turn fear and division into anger and unity,” she said, and mount wide ranging and growing opposition to the Bill.

She even suggested that trade unions could derail the legislation once it had become law.

Labour councillor Bill Butler praised the Labour-run Scottish councils that had taken a stand against the Trade Union Bill and called on the Scottish government to resist the Bill. All 32 Scottish councils have pledged to ignore it.

Public-sector union PCS Scottish secretary Lynn Henderson said that PCS in Scotland does not expect to see facility time and check-off arrangements curtailed by the Scottish government.