THE right to strike must be defended, Unison delegates agreed today.

The union’s annual conference heard that government plans to ban workers from withdrawing the labour through the Strikes (Minimum Service Level) Act could put one in five, or 5.5 million, at risk of losing their right to strike.

Polly Smith of Suffolk County said: “This law will affect so many of our members and must be repealed.”

NEC industrial action committee chairman Mark Fisher told delegates that this was just the latest in a long list of attacks on unions.

“But the Tories have failed and our members are standing together,” he said.

“Never has the right to strike been more needed.

“We already have some of the most restrictive trade union laws in the Western world.”

Clare Wormold from Southend-on-Sea pointed out that unions had defeated previous attempts to restrict trade union rights.

“We have done it before and we can do it again,” she said.

Medeena Hussein, a striking mental health social worker from Barnet, north London, said that she and her colleagues were taking action because they were “at breaking point.”

She added that the strike was not just about pay but “the future of our service.”

Ms Hussein told delegates that Labour-controlled Barnet council had hired agency workers to break the strike and could move quickly while the union was pinned down by restrictive laws.

“Barnet council, shame on you,” she said.

James Robinson from Knowsley added that he was doubtful that an incoming Labour government would stick to its promises to repeal any of the anti-union laws.

We will need “to organise to win,” he argued.

Eve Miller from the West Midlands said that repealing the law on minimum service levels and the 2016 Trade Union Act within the first 100 days of Labour government would be “a great start, but not enough.”

She called for all anti-trade union laws to be scrapped.