Trade unionists call for strike

By Tim Ross, Political Correspondent, in Brighton

Public and private sector employees would be expected to join the industrial action and the TUC will now examine how a strike could be made to work.
 

Union leaders including some of Labour's biggest backers supported the threat of a general strike to "fight back" against the Coalition's policies.
 

Delegates at the TUC conference in Brighton voted in favour of a motion demanding that the organisation consider "the practicalities of a general strike".
 

Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT union, said: "Brothers and sisters, we as a trade union movement have got to stand firm.
 

"If it means a general strike, let's do it and let's get on with it."

 
Steve Gillan, leader of the Prison Officers Association, which proposed the idea, said a general strike should be in the unions' "armoury" in their fight against austerity.
 
"It does not mean we will have a general strike tomorrow, but we should have that in our armoury, because this Government is not afraid or embarrassed to do what it is doing to society," he said.
 
"When you are threatened, threaten back."

Steve Turner, assistant general secretary of Unite, which has given more than £5 million to Ed Miliband's Labour Party, said: "We are at our best fighting back, roaring like lions, not cowering in corners."
 
However, moderate union leaders, including Mary Bousted, from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, cautioned against backing a general strike.
 
Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, played down the prospect of a walk out. "A general strike would require the support of all our members in democratic ballots," he said.
 
"It would have enormous industrial and political implications. I do not see any prospect of one taking place." /Telegraph