UK won’t be held to ransom by striking unions, minister says

UK ministers won’t be held to ransom by striking workers calling for more pay, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said, as the government grapples with a wave of industrial action hitting hospitals, the railways and airports.

Speaking to broadcasters at Manchester Airport on Thursday, Wallace said an operation by the military to stand in for striking border force workers at British airports was “pretty efficient” and “overall we’re not seeing any disruption here to people’s travel.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s administration is struggling to contain worker unrest over pay deals that are failing to keep pace with inflation at a four-decade high. That’s led to widespread strikes across several industries, with December predicted to see the biggest loss of working days since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister in 1989.

“We’re not going back to the 1970s where the trade union barons thought that they ran the government,” Wallace said. “We’re not going to be held to ransom.”

‘Bandit Capitalism’

The line raised the ire of unions, with Unite General Secretary Sharon Graham calling Wallace’s remarks “puerile.”

“The truth is that it is bandit capitalism that’s holding the country to ransom,” Graham said in a statement. “This government is presiding over a broken economy that works just for the rich and not for everyday people.”

Wallace reiterated the government line that it’s sticking to salary recommendations by independent pay review bodies rather than caving in to demands for greater pay from unions representing nurses, paramedics, railway workers and border guards.

The government argues that increasing pay in line with rising prices would only serve to further stoke inflation and prolong the UK’s economic pain.

“The trade unions can negotiate, they can negotiate with their employers and try and come to a resolution and that’s the most important thing,” Wallace said. “There’s no magic wand here to come up with money that the country doesn’t have.”