TOLPUDDLE will forever be a special place for the trade union movement.

This year, the story of the martyrs is as relevant as ever. Squire James Frampton was a landowner who feared that trade unionism threatened the power base of the wealthy classes and called on the full might of the law to quash it. His victimisation of the martyrs — for organising against pay cuts — has been repeated by greedy bosses throughout history.

Squire Frampton would have approved of the way ministers today are introducing new laws to make it harder for people to defend their living standards.

This dying government wants to strip workers of power at the negotiating table and give bosses the upper hand during disputes.

The decision to allow bosses to break strikes by bringing in agency workers is shameless — even by Boris Johnson’s standards. These pernicious new laws will make it harder for workers to defend their jobs, pay and conditions at a time when millions are struggling to make ends meet.

Workers’ right to strike is internationally recognised and a fundamental British liberty. The government wants to attack this right and deploy agency workers as strikebreakers across the economy, including on the railways.

Using agency workers during industrial action would only embitter disputes and poison industrial relations. And bringing in agency staff who haven’t been fully trained could endanger the public. Just months after crying crocodile tears when P&O replaced crew on the union rate for the job with agency labour on poverty pay, ministers are now using the same playbook.

We will not let them get away with it. In the battle for the public’s hearts and minds, the Tolpuddle trade unionists won the day with massive meetings, petitions and demonstrations forcing the martyrs’ return.

Today’s unions are protesting on the streets but we’re also using new digital tools to organise, including to smash Tory thresholds for strike ballots. And the RMT’s heroic defence of jobs and pay in the rail industry is inspiring people across the country to demand better at work. Trade union membership searches are surging as workers say enough is enough.

This weekend at Tolpuddle the trade union movement meets in good heart. We have challenging times ahead, but we are ready and resilient.

I look forward to catching up with friends in Dorset and to celebrating the six courageous workers who stood together against the squire.

I also intend to send a strong message to the government that this generation of working people are just as determined to defend our rights, pay and conditions as those who have gone before.