Unions could organise co-ordinated strike action “very soon” after the “horror story” of the past few weeks, a union boss has warned.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, told Sky News that the union had been in discussion with other unions following strike action by the RMT and Unison.
“I think there could be up to a million people on strike very, very soon,” she said.
“What we’re seeing - and I think we just have to take this back as to why people go on strike - is that they [the government] can put in all the anti-trade union they want, they can pretend it is union barons pressing big red buttons but this is about anger, anger in workplaces, both in the public sector and in the private sector.”
Asked whether there could be a general strike, she said: “We could see multiple strikes this winter but what people call it is really up to them.”
The majority of Unite’s members work for the NHS, which could see a wave of industrial action this winter. The Royal College of Nursing is currently balloting 300,000 of its members about possible strikes, with the British Medical Association also poised to ballot its members for industrial action.
Ms Graham said that a strike by doctors and nurses was “a very real option that is being looked at”.
She claimed that new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who took over from sacked Kwasi Kwarteng on Friday, is “not the answer to what is happening”.
Separately, the Government on Sunday announced it would press ahead with legal moves to introduce minimum service levels during strikes by transport workers.
It follows months of industrial action by railway workers in bitter disputes over pay, jobs and conditions which has caused travel chaos across the country.
The aim is to ensure transport services including rail, tubes and buses cannot be completely shut down when workers go on strike.
But TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady said: “These proposals will undermine the right to strike and this is an attempt to stop transport workers taking action for better pay and conditions.”
