The Tories have been accused of “bully boy” tactics over new anti-strike legislation.
And South Scotland MSP Colin Smyth has challenged Conservative MPs, MSPs and councillors to meet with striking workers on picket lines.
He threw down the gauntlet after the UK Government introduced a bill to parliament on Tuesday requiring a minimum level of service during industrial action in the NHS, education, fire and rescue, border security and nuclear decommissioning.
Unions oppose the move saying members, who voted to strike, would be forced to work and sacked if they didn’t comply.
Mr Smyth, who has spent time on several picket lines in the last 12 months, added: “I would challenge every local Tory MP, MSP and councillor to join me and actually speak to those workers instead of threatening to sack them.
“If they did, they would find out that not a single person on the picket line wants to be there, losing their wages at a time our governments are presiding over a cost of living crisis.
“They have been forced into that position because bosses and our governments are failing to get round the table and negotiate.
“It seems that local Tory politicians have gone from clapping for key workers to threatening them with the sack if they take lawful action against planned pay cuts.
“That will simply make it even more difficult to recruit people to those key jobs and such bully boy tactics are likely to increase strike action, not reduce it.”
Unions have heavily criticised Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government over the move, which comes after an unprecedented year of strikes across a variety of sectors, and have threatened legal action.
The Tories insist the plans are about safety but trade unions said it was a blatant attempt to curb the impact that strikes have and called it a “shameful attack on democracy”.
Mr Smyth said: “It doesn’t come as a surprise to anyone that the failed Tory Government’s response to nurses taking industrial action – because they are sick of the UK and Scottish Government ignoring the crisis in the NHS – is to threaten to bring in laws to sack those nurses.
“When there has been industrial action in the past in the NHS, workers have always continued to provide emergency cover, which is more than can be said for our two governments who are the ones failing patients by not delivering a minimum service.
“Our governments need to tackle the causes of the strike action.”
Business Secretary Grant Shapps, who introduced the legislation, said: “No one is talking about sacking nurses. Nothing we are announcing today in this bill from the despatch box is about getting rid of nurses any more than any employment contract has to be followed.
“We don’t want to use this legislation but we must ensure the safety of the British public.”
