Union seeks national resistance to austerity cuts {uk}

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http://uk.reuters.com/article/2011/09/10/uk-britain-union-idUKTRE7892RK20110910

(Reuters) - Workers should be prepared to go on strike and engage in civil disobedience to resist austerity measures ordered by the coalition government, the leader of Britain's largest trade union said in remarks published Saturday.

Len McCluskey, head of the Unite union, said 6.5 million union members -- around a quarter of the national workforce -- had to "stand up and fight" or face terminal decline of their movement.

"My view is that we should rule nothing in and nothing out. Every conceivable form of protest and action should be carefully considered, from civil disobedience through to co-ordinated industrial strikes," he told the Observer newspaper.

"Everything should be considered in the face of the type of onslaught that we are looking at," he added, speaking ahead of an annual summit of workers' leaders and union activists next week.