Strikes Do Not Help Striking Workers, Says Penny Mordaunt
Penny Mordaunt has said it was a “myth” that going on strike helps workers.
The Commons leader said on Sunday that encouraging people to take industrial action was “political cynicism”.
Speaking to Sky News’ Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme, Mordaunt said handing out pay rises risked increased inflation which would cost people more overall.
“I think it is political cynicism of the worst kind to encourage strikes,” she said.
“The only people that benefit from strikes are the Labour Party. Striking workers don’t benefit from strikes.
“It’s a myth that strikes are helpful. They’re not. They exacerbate financial problems for the very people going out on strike. It’s not good for the country and I’d encourage people not to do it.”
Figures released last week showed December saw the highest number of working days lost to strike action for more than a decade.
About 843,000 working days were lost to labour disputes in the month, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
It said this represents the heaviest impact from strike action during a month since November 2011, when 997,000 working days were hit.
Union leaders have warned industrial action across the public sector is not about to end, with Sharon Graham, the general secretary of Unite saying strike action “isn’t going away”.
On Monday, 45,000 junior doctors in England will know the result of their ballot for strike action over pay and working conditions.
The government is in the process of introducing new laws designed to make it harder for people to
Under the new law, unions and employers must guarantee a base level of service in the health, rail, education, fire and border security sectors while industrial action takes place.
Strikes will be deemed illegal if trade unions fail to do so, while employers will also able to sue unions and sack workers who do not comply.
Earlier, unions representing more than 20 million workers across Europe criticised the plans and rejected the government’s claims that the legislation would bring the UK into line with Europe.