Unions are close to organising co-ordinated strike action “very soon” following the “horror story” of the past few weeks, a union boss has told Sky News.
Sharon Graham, general secretary of Unite, accused the government of “aiding and abetting” employers earning millions in profits but not handing that to workers.
She confirmed Unite, the UK’s second biggest union after Unison, has been in talks with other unions after the RMT and Unison have also been talking about strike action.
Ms Graham told Sky News’ Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme: “I think there could be up to a million people on strike very, very soon.
“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 if the UK could see a general strike, where multiple sectors organise strikes at the same time, this winter, Ms Graham said: “We could see multiple strikes this winter but what people call it is really up to them.
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“There will be multiple strikes and I know in my own union there have been 450 strikes in less than a year, 90,000 Unite members have been out on strike, £200m has been won back in the pockets of those workers.
“That is the job of trade unions, that’s what we should be doing and that’s what we’re doing more and more of, so I can see that that will escalate.”
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Many of Unite’s members work for the NHS and Ms Graham said doctors and nurses going on strike is “a very real option that is now being looked at”.
She also criticised new Chancellor Jeremy Hunt, who faced multiple NHS strikes when he was health secretary under David Cameron and Theresa May over junior doctor contracts.
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‘It was a mistake to fly blind’
“I don’t know what his plans are for this country as chancellor but anything towards privatising the NHS or anything that is going to make poor people poorer, that really is a difficulty,” Ms Graham said.
She added: “I think that we are witnessing a horror story, to be honest.
“It’s like watching a film behind your hands and every time you look there’s something worse happening and I think that we’ve got a real problem on our hands.
“Jeremy Hunt is not the answer to what is happening here.
“Jeremy Hunt, if you heard him yesterday, was talking about a second round of austerity and I think what people will not put up with, after the 2008 financial crash this country went through 10 years of austerity, 10 years of pain, 10 years of struggle, workers and their families – and they did that because of a financial crash.”
Image: Junior doctors protest outside the Department of Health while Jeremy Hunt was health secretary
Ms Graham said there now needs to be a “change of government” but admitted she thinks Ms Truss and the Tory government will be “clinging on right to the very end”.
She said Labour has a real opportunity to win an election now but warned it is not a “moment to play safe”.
“This is not a moment to say okay, they’re doing so badly we just have to sit on the sidelines here,” she said.
“This is the moment to take this by the scruff of the neck, to say this is what we need to do, to come up with a solution to these problems and to really lay out what Labour’s stall is.
“Get some mettle, lay out your stall and say what people should vote for not just what they should vote against.”
Ukraine’s president is offering an olive branch to Donald Trump with a dramatic public message aimed at mending their relationship and ending Russia’s war.
He did not go so far as to apologise for a fiery bust-up with Mr Trump at the Oval Office last Friday – a move that some members of the US administration have called for, even though it was the American president and his deputy JD Vance who laid into Mr Zelenskyy.
Image: Ukrainian forces fire a missile towards Russian troops near Chasiv Yar. Pic: Reuters
Most significantly though was his spelling out of a vision for the first stage of how Russia’s war with Ukraine could end.
Pushing back on false claims by Trump allies such as Elon Musk that Mr Zelenskyy wants an endless war, he said that Ukraine is committed to peace and is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible.
Crucially, he said: “We are ready to work fast to end the war, and the first stages could be the release of prisoners and truce in the sky – ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure – and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same.”
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Appealing to the US president’s ego, he praised Mr Trump’s “strong leadership” and repeated his gratitude for past American support – again responding to criticism from the American commander in chief and his team that he is not showing enough gratitude.
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He also said Kyiv was ready to sign a key minerals deal with Washington – something else Mr Trump is seeking.
This message appears to be an attempt by Mr Zelenskyy to steer his relationship with Mr Trump back on track and to map out his idea for an end to the war – a conflict that Ukraine did not seek but which was brought to its land by Russia’s invading forces.
Image: Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House on Friday, before their Oval Office bust-up. Pic: AP
Will Mr Zelenskyy’s expression of regret and clear wish to end the war provide enough of an off-ramp for Mr Trump to defuse the row and – for the sake of Ukraine’s ability to defend itself – switch back on the flow of military assistance to the country?
Another major factor, of course, is how Vladimir Putin reacts and whether he could countenance a limited ceasefire in a war that he started and – unlike Mr Zelenskyy – appears to have no genuine desire to halt.
Donald Trump’s 25% tariffs on goods from Mexico and Canada have come into effect, as has an additional 10% on Chinese products, bringing the total import tax to 20%.
The US president confirmed the tariffs in a speech at the White House – and his announcement sent US and European stocks down sharply.
The tariffs will be felt heavily by US companies which have factories in Canada and Mexico, such as carmakers.
Mr Trump said: “They’re going to have a tariff. So what they have to do is build their car plants, frankly, and other things in the United States, in which case they have no tariffs.”
There’s “no room left” for a deal that would see the tariffs shelved if fentanyl flowing into the US is curbed by its neighbours, he added.
Mexico and Canada face tariffs of 25%, with 10% for Canadian energy, the Trump administration confirmed.
And tariffs on Chinese imports have doubled, raising them from 10% to 20%.
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Canada announced it would retaliate immediately, imposing 25% tariffs on US imports worth C$30bn (£16.3bn). It added the tariffs would be extended in 21 days to cover more US goods entering the country if the US did not lift its sanctions against Canada.
China also vowed to retaliate and reiterated its stance that the Trump administration was trying to “shift the blame” and “bully” Beijing over fentanyl flows.
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What is America’s trade position?
Mr Trump’s speech stoked fears of a trade war in North America, prompting a financial market sell-off.
Stock market indexes the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite fell by 1.48% and 2.64% respectively on Monday.
The share prices for automobile companies including General Motors, which has significant truck production in Mexico, Automaker and Ford also fell.
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Consumers in the US could see price hikes within days, an expert has said.
Gustavo Flores-Macias, a public policy professor at Cornell University, New York, said “the automobile sector, in particular, is likely to see considerable negative consequences”.
This is due to supply chains that “crisscross the three countries in the manufacturing process” and ” because of the expected increase in the price of vehicles, which can dampen demand,” he added.
A truck has collided with a bus in southern Bolivia, killing at least 31 people, according to police – just two days after a deadly crash claimed at least 37 lives.
Officers said the bus rolled some 500m (1,640ft) down a ravine after the collision on Monday, which took place on the highway between Oruro, in the Bolivian Altiplano, and the highland mining city of Potosi.
The driver of the truck has been arrested, while the cause of the accident is under investigation.
Police spokesperson Limbert Choque said men and women were among the dead, and 22 people suffered injuries.
Image: Rescue teams operating at the site of the crash. Pic: Bolivia’s attorney general/Reuters
Bolivia’s President, Luis Arce, expressed condolences for the victims on social media: “This unfortunate event must be investigated to establish responsibilities,” he said in a post on Facebook.
“We send our most sincere condolences to the bereaved families, wishing them the necessary strength to face these difficult times.”
Image: The crash happened between Oruro and Potosi
On Saturday morning, a crash between two buses killed more than three dozen people in the same region.
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It happened between Colchani and the city of Uyuni, a major tourist attraction and the world’s largest salt flat.
Image: People stand near the wreckage of one of the two buses involved in a crash on Saturday. Pic: Reuters/Potosi Departmental Command
Coincidentally, one of the buses was heading to Oruro, where one of the most important carnival celebrations in Latin America is currently taking place.
More than 30 people were also killed after a bus crash on 17 February.
In that crash, police said the driver appeared to have lost control of the vehicle, causing it to drop more than 800m (2,600ft) off a precipice in the southwestern area of Yocalla.
Bolivia’s mountainous, undermaintained and poorly supervised roads are some of the deadliest in the world, claiming an average 1,400 fatalities every year.