UK union leaders step up warnings of synchronised strikes this winter

theguardian.com:

Trade union leaders are warning of a wave of synchronised strikes this winter, with a civil service union saying road officials could take action on the same day as rail workers, and Border Force officials on the same day as airport staff, to cause maximum disruption.

As trade unionists met for the annual TUC congress in Brighton, Mark Serwotka, the head of the PCS union, representing 150,000 civil servants, said it stood ready to strike on the same day as others if its workplaces vote for industrial action in ballots due to be returned by early November.

“If we win those ballots, we stand prepared to take action on the same day as any other union to show the government we strike together,” he said.

He was among a string of trade union chiefs who intensified their warnings of coordinated strikes across multiple sectors this winter to cause more disruption, increase effectiveness and try to win pay disputes.

The school leaders’ union, the NAHT, told congress that headteachers would be balloted on industrial action in a row over pay and funding, in a 125-year first.

It comes amid tension between some trade unions and their organising body, the TUC, as a section of them want to go further in organising synchronised strike action.

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT, which is balloting to extend the mandate for rail strikes, told a fringe meeting: “We need an uprising. We need a whole wave of synchronised, coordinated action. I don’t care what it’s called. I don’t care if Paul Nowak or Frances [O’Grady, the incoming and outgoing general secretaries of the TUC] are the ones that coordinate it as long as they don’t get in the way – we can get on with it ourselves, frankly.”

He cautioned union members to “beware of the TUC”,