WORKERS will take joint action to defend their right to strike, Yorkshire and the Humber regional TUC’s annual conference declared on Saturday.

More than 100 delegates at the 75th annual meeting of the organisation, in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, committed themselves to working together against the Tories’ latest attack on the trade union movement: the Strikes (Minimum Services) Bill.

The Bill, currently being rushed through Parliament, will enable the government to demand that workers and their unions meet a fixed level of service even if they have voted overwhelmingly for strike action. Workers who refuse can be sacked with no defence.

Unions whose members fail to provide the government-determined levels of minimum service can be sued to the point of bankruptcy.

Civil service union PCS won unanimous backing for a call for the regional TUC to lead a united campaign against the Bill.

PCS delegate Marion Lloyd told the conference: “We all know that this is a declaration of war on the democratic rights of workers and our ability to fight back.

“We cannot just sit back and allow this to happen.

“Protests outside Parliament are not enough. We must build and deliver a united response right across the trade union movement, with strike action if necessary.”

She said the Bill was one of the most restrictive anti-union laws across the whole of Europe.

Supporting the call for a united campaign against the Bill, Unite regional secretary Karen Reay said that while the cost-of-living crisis left workers unable to keep their heads above the water, companies were making “rampant” profits.

“To strike is a fundamental right. Rather than reduce strike action this Bill will have the opposite effect, making disputes longer.”

In a play on the chilling warning issued by Pastor Niemoeller in Germany in the 1930s, she said: “First they came for the trade unions.”

The conference also gave unanimous backing to a motion from the University and College Union to support co-ordinated strike action by unions against the Bill.