A NEW anti-trade union law could make it “impossible” for rail workers to carry out meaningful strike action, RMT leaders warned today.

The rail union’s leader Mick Lynch told a rally outside Parliament on Wednesday that the government’s new Transport Strikes Bill amounted to a move to “conscript labour,” but pledged to fight the proposals “all the way.” 

“What we’re facing here in the middle of our dispute is a move by the government and the powers that be in this country to conscript labour,” he said. 

“[Workers] will be required on pain of dismissal … to break their own dispute, despite going over the hurdles we’ve already got. So that is a step even further compared to what we’ve got now.”

He added: “The reason they want to bring in more laws is because we’re winning.”

The legislation, also referred to as the Minimum Service Levels Bill, was introduced to Parliament on October 20 with the aim of cracking down on rail unions amid national train strikes. 

The proposed legislation would require unions to come to a legal agreement with employers to guarantee minimum service requirements on services where they’re seeking to take industrial action on before launching strike action. 

Speaking to the Morning Star following the rally, RMT president Alex Gordon explained this would effectively force workers to provide a service on all trains, or at least those during rush hour. 

“This would be effectively making strike action impossible to carry out in a really meaningful sense,” he warned. 

The legislation would also force an affected union to “turn against its own members,” he added, explaining: “It would require the union to instruct its own members who had voted for strike action to go to work.”

Those who fail to go to work would face punishments — and trade unions could be hit with “swingeing fines.” 

Mr Gordon noted that the proposals are not a Tory invention but already exist in legislation in Germany, Italy and France. 

The second reading of the Bill has been shelved and it is not clear when it will be returning to the Commons. 

The rally also heard from Green MP Caroline Lucas, train union Aslef assistant general secretary Simon Weller and was supported by several Labour MPs including Nadia Whittome, Marsha de Cordova, Rebecca Long Bailey and Richard Burgon.