General Secretary Mick Cash said; "We know that these brutal new anti-union laws are specifically targeted at our members in the transport sector who have shown in recent months that they have the guts to stand up and fight for jobs, pay, services and safety. The response of this Government mirrors the actions of hard-right regimes throughout history - shackle the unions, criminalise it's members and use a raft of new laws to try and bankrupt workers' organisations.

"It is not lost on us that this legislation has been tabled just a few days before we celebrate the Tolpuddle Martyrs at their annual festival - a group of Dorset farm labourers criminalised and ‎exiled for daring to organise a union.

"The trade union movement will unite to fight this brutal assault on the most basic of human rights and that campaign will be taken into the communities who stand to lose access to safe and reliable services as this noose of the anti-union laws is twisted round our necks. "