I AM writing about the government’s proposed Trade Union Bill which fundamentally threatens the right to strike.

The Bill suggests that employers should be able to employ inexperienced agency workers to cover for strikes. This could have a major impact on the safety of the public, lead to worse public services and will undermine the right to strike.

It will bring in major new restrictions on peaceful picketing and protests. This means that striking workers will have to tell their employer all their plans – including what they will post on Facebook - two weeks before the strike.

No one wants to go on strike – and it’s always a last resort, when faced with an employer who won’t listen. Indeed, strikes are at a historic low. But threatening the right to strike means that workers won’t be able to defend jobs or services, or stand up for safety and decency at work. It will tip the balance in the workplace too far in favour of the employer.

I am calling on our local MPs in the St Helens and Knowsley constituencies, Marie Rimmer, George Howarth and Conor McGinn to vote against this unnecessary attack on the right to strike in Parliament. And I’ll be heading down to London on November 2 to ask for their support at the TUC’s national lobby of Parliament

I hope that your readers will join with me in campaigning against the Bill.

Anthony Lockhart

St Helens & Knowsley Hospitals joint unions staff side chair