Our town and county have a strong history of trade unions, strikes and movements for the working class.

In 1839/40, the Chartists - the first mass movement of the working classes which fought for all men to have the vote and more democratic political systems - saw some of their prominent leaders trialed in the Shire Hall.

The Welsh coal strike in 1898, involving colliers in Monmouthshire, is a landmark in Welsh history and trade unionism in South Wales.

We can thank trade unions for many conditions of employment like holiday pay, five day working weeks and safer working conditions.

Fast forward to 2023 and the MP for Monmouthshire just voted for a Bill which will limit and attack trade unions and strikes.

This ‘Minimum Service Level Bill’ is a farce - the problems with our broken public systems are not workers who strike, but the reasons why workers make the difficult to decision to strike in the first place.

Apparently this is for the public’s safety, but the word ‘safety’ is not in the Bill once.

If the government cared so much about service levels, why doesn’t it properly fund public services and staff? I

f we want to have decent and safe public services, we need to stand by workers who are striking - not by a government led by a Prime Minister who doesn’t even use the NHS.

Ruth Walters