Covid heroworship has emboldened union barons

Those threatening more strikes should acknowledge that it wasn’t only public sector workers who carried on during the pandemic

Rishi Sunak loves nothing more than a high-level taskforce. As chancellor he gave us the Covid fraud taskforce, a taskforce to look at a Bank of England digital currency and the roll-off-the-tongue Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

Having unveiled a vaccine-style taskforce to rescue the NHS on Monday, the Prime Minister is now setting up a “winter of discontent” strike taskforce to oversee the response to a wave of industrial action that threatens to cripple Britain in the run-up to Christmas. At this rate he may need a taskforce just to keep track of all the others.

Still, the need for a dedicated unit to minimise the cost and disruption to an already-frail economy is clear. Comparisons with the 1970s are not exaggerated. In many cases, the strikes are coordinated by union bosses determined to shut down the country regardless of the consequences.

Meanwhile, the scale of the planned strikes is shocking, with tens of thousands of workers across vital sectors threatening walkouts in the coming weeks, including firefighters, midwives, doctors, postal workers and 10,000 ambulance drivers.

Perhaps the most outrageous demand comes from the nursing unions, who want a 19pc pay rise for their members.

There is no doubt that nurses do a vital, difficult and often thankless job. But a raise on that scale is simply unaffordable – particularly when many taxpayers in the private sector are suffering a steep fall in their real incomes. Putting public health at risk with strike action will damage the profession’s reputation.

The strikes are expected to blow a £3bn hole in the economy, devastating small businesses, and teeing up a Christmas of misery as the country is disrupted by strikes every day until Dec 25. And that’s before you include the chaos that will be brought to airports, ports, driving tests and the DVLA by 100,000 striking civil servants. The misery inflicted on many families already grappling with the cost of living crisis will be massive.

The strikes are being led by ruthless militant union bosses whose real agenda isn’t fighting for their members’ rights but trying to bring down the Government on ideological grounds.

What rankles most are the cynical attempts to justify unreasonable double-digit pay rises for their members on the basis that many of them worked through the pandemic. This is spurious nonsense. The Covid hero-worship of key workers does not justify such outrageous demands, and even if it did, where do you draw the line?

If nurses are deserving of a truly eye-watering 19pc pay rise, then what about ambulance drivers, posties, teachers, train drivers and millions of others who worked through the pandemic?

Many are public sector workers, who generally receive excellent benefits including better job security, gold-plated final salary pensions, and earlier retirement – the bill for which is landed on taxpayers.

Why should Royal Mail staff and BT engineers receive inflation-busting salary hikes when the rest of the country has been left considerably poorer by soaring inflation?

The demands of Royal Mail postal staff are particularly egregious given that they already enjoy a somewhat cosseted existence thanks to the dead hand of the Commercial Workers’ Union, which continues to block any attempts at modernisation among a workforce that the company claims earns roughly 40pc more than their counterparts at other delivery firms.

The CWU has not only rejected a wholly reasonable 9pc “full and final” pay offer but wants a deal that matches inflation – currently at more than 11pc – while simultaneously demanding a reduction in working hours and lighter duties for anyone over the age of 55.

Blustering deputy general secretary Terry Pullinger, who once threatened to “smash the Royal Mail to bits” in a dispute over pensions, says the union won’t back down until workers get an increase “that rewards their fantastic achievements in keeping the country connected during the pandemic”.

Similarly, why should an exception be made for train drivers, who earn on average almost £60,000 a year – nearly twice that of nurses, and double the minimum wage?

The typical driver also enjoys a four-day week, the typical retirement age is just 62 – compared with a national average of 65 – and retirees leave with a full pension of around £40,000 on top of a generous lump sum.

True, the trains continued to run during coronavirus but not without £16bn of taxpayer money, and many were practically empty for much of it. Without government intervention, job losses would have been in the tens of thousands.

Short-sighted union leaders are like turkeys voting for Christmas. They refuse to agree to reform despite the fact there are 20pc fewer people on the trains than before, while every day that is lost to strike action means less money for pay rises and a greater likelihood of cost cuts and job losses.

Meanwhile, old habits die hard – the Royal Mail claims employees who have chosen to work during the strikes have faced violence, abuse and intimidation from those on the picket line.

As the company rightly says, there can be no place for such behaviour in any civilised workplace. The Government must stand firm and face down the unions.

It is imperative that ministers fast-track minimum service legislation so that the majority of the country can no longer be held to ransom by the bully-boy tactics of a minority hell-bent on ruin.

‘Shortsighted union leaders are like turkeys voting for Christmas’