Trade unions are threatening a winter of mass strikes and a legal battles over proposed anti-strike laws, in the most militant showdown with the government since the 1970s.
Opening the delayed TUC conference in Brighton, outgoing general secretary Frances O’Grady claimed working families are at breaking point and will lose £4,000 over the next three years because of inflation.
And claiming Liz Truss’s proposals for new anti-strike laws – to combat disruption of vital services like trains, schools, post and the NHS – would break international law and trade deals, she said defiantly: “See you in court.”
The tough talking from Ms O’Grady, who is stepping down ahead of becoming a Labour peer, followed warnings of co-ordinated strikes by the leaders of the UK’s two biggest unions this week.
Speaking on Sophy Ridge on Sunday, Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “I think there could be up to a million people on strike very, very soon. We could see multiple strikes this winter.”
And Unison general secretary Christina McAnea, whose union is already poised to ballot 400,000 members throughout the UK over walkouts, said the NHS could be hit by mass strike action this winter.
Several unions have tabled motions for the Brighton conference calling on the TUC to co-ordinate walkouts for maximum impact, stopping short of a general strike but marking a massive escalation of the current strikes by the rail union RMT and other unions.
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One of the first to announce that its members would be balloted on industrial action was the National Association of Head Teachers.
General Secretary Paul Whiteman told the conference headteachers had lost around 24% on the value of their salary since 2010 and said he had written to Education Secretary Kit Malthouse to inform him of his intentions.
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It is the first time in the union’s 125-year history that members have been balloted over pay.
Mr Whiteman said: “Over the course of the last few months, I have travelled the country hearing from our members directly. I have never heard more anger and despair.
“School leaders across the country are telling me that they cannot continue to run their schools in the current circumstances.”
Rows over pay could become the biggest confrontation between the union movement and the government since Edward Heath was Tory prime minister in the early 1970s and the “Winter of Discontent” when James Callaghan was Labour PM in the late ’70s.
The present Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer is due to address the TUC on Thursday and is likely to face angry accusations of failing to support unions on strike and criticism of his ban on shadow ministers joining picket lines.
Image: General Secretary of the TUC, Frances O’Grady
‘Read my lips: we’ll see you in court’
In her opening speech, Ms O’Grady said: “We’re in the longest squeeze on real wages since Napoleonic times. The worst in modern history.
“And if ministers and employers keep hammering pay packets at the same rate, UK workers are on course to suffer two decades – 20 years – of lost living standards.
“Over the next three years alone real earnings are set to fall by another £4,000.
“We have got to stop the rot. Families cannot afford to tighten their belts anymore -they are at breaking point.”
Warning the government not to attack the right to strike, she said: “Just when the citizens of this country are in despair, when key workers’ kids are going to school with holes in their shoes, and young families are worried sick about taking on a mortgage – Liz Truss’s top priority is to make it harder for workers to win better pay.
“It’s a cynical effort to distract from the mess this government has caused.
“If ministers cross the road to pick a fight with us then we will meet them halfway.
“Today I give ministers notice. We’ve already taken legal counsel and we know you’re in breach of international law and trade deals that enshrine labour standards.
“So read my lips: we will see you in court.”
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10:55
General Secretary of Unite Sharon Graham says Jeremy Hunt ‘is not the answer’ to the UK’s economic difficulties
‘The Tories are now toxic’
And condemning the Conservatives’ economic strategy, she said: “The PM may have dumped Kwasi Kwarteng. And is now hiding behind Jeremy Hunt.
“But she can’t duck this: We can’t trust her government with our economy.
“The Tories are now toxic. It’s time for change.”
Based on Bank of England forecasts, the TUC estimates real wages will not recover to their 2008 level until 2028. This will result in workers losing a further £4,000, on average, over the next three years as a result of inflation outstripping wage growth.
The TUC also calculates the average worker will have lost a total of £24,000 in real earnings since the 2008 financial crash as a result of pay not keeping pace with inflation.
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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2:45
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.