Union barons were accused last night of plotting a ‘de facto general strike’ in the New Year as they launched a loyalty card scheme designed to artificially swell picket line numbers.
The union-backed ‘Strike Map’ organisation is offering ‘prizes’ to Left-wing activists who attend multiple picket lines, regardless of whether they have any personal involvement in a series of bitter pay disputes.
It has also established a ‘wall of fame’ for activists who take part in the most disputes. ‘The more pickets you visit, the more free prizes you win,’ the group’s website boasts.
It comes ahead of weeks more of planned strikes, with border guards walking out at seven ports and airports for another four days from today, along with driving examiners in some parts of England.
The union-backed ‘Strike Map’ organisation is offering ‘prizes’ to Left-wing activists who attend multiple picket lines
Union barons have launched a loyalty card scheme designed to artificially swell picket line numbers. Pictured: Picket line outside Waterloo ambulance station on December 21
Rail workers will strike again across five days next week, and nurses will walk out for 48 hours over January 18 and 19, and ambulance staff on January 11 and 23.
Workers from other sectors, such as teachers and firefighters, are also being balloted.
Tory MPs said last night the Strike Map initiative was further evidence that militant unions were co-ordinating efforts to damage the Government.
Swelling picket lines with non-strikers also fuelled concerns about a possible revival of the banned practice of using flying pickets – when groups of striking workers move from one workplace to another to picket them.
Tory MP Craig Mackinlay said: ‘If activists want to join picket lines unrelated to their own industries, this is evidence emerging of potential flying pickets in all but name.
In a video clip posted on the group’s Facebook page, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: ‘This is one of the most important assets that we have in the movement now’
Apsana Begum, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse, tweeted: ‘I just joined the Strike Map #visitapicket loyalty card scheme. Support your local strikes and win free prizes’
Rail workers will strike again across five days next week. Pictured: Passengers waiting at King’s Cross Station on December 27
‘There’s no doubt at all that this is wholly political in its ambitions to cause a de facto general strike to bring down the nation’s finances and the Government.’
Former Cabinet minister Damian Green said the Government was facing a ‘quasi-general strike’ co-ordinated by ‘politically motivated’ union leaders.
He said the development of a coffee shop-style loyalty card was ‘a further sign that for some unions these are political strikes’.
Strike Map also publishes a detailed real-time map showing the time and location of thousands of picket lines across the country – covering disputes by rail workers, postmen, paramedics, nurses and others – so people can travel to join them.
Left-wing Labour MPs have backed the Strike Map initiative, which is set to go live next month.
In a video clip posted on the group’s Facebook page, former shadow chancellor John McDonnell said: ‘This is one of the most important assets that we have in the movement now. If you want to express your solidarity and join a picket line, you go to Strike Map.’
Apsana Begum, the MP for Poplar and Limehouse, tweeted: ‘I just joined the Strike Map #visitapicket loyalty card scheme. Support your local strikes and win free prizes.’
In another video message, Kevin Courtney, joint general secretary of the NEU teachers’ union, encourages others to sign up.
Pre-empting the result of his union’s strike ballot, he adds: ‘I am really looking forward to you publicising all our pickets at 23,400 schools when we strike in the New Year.’
According to Strike Map’s website, it is backed by branches of the rail union Aslef and Unite. Its tells activists to complete a form so they can receive their picket loyalty card ‘digitally and physically’.
Applicants should then take a selfie of themselves on picket lines before posting them on social media with the hashtag #visitapicket.
To ‘win prizes’, activists should upload their photo on to their digital loyalty card as proof. Three photos earn activists a place on the organisation’s ‘wall of fame’ and ten result in a free T-shirt.
Former Tory leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith said: ‘With the nature of how these strikes are being planned, there’s no question that they have a purpose. It’s a very clear political purpose to create as much mayhem as possible and… bring a government to the brink of collapse.
‘They’re trying to bring about the chaos of a general strike without actually having to do one.’
Strike Map declined to comment last night.
