TWO million striking workers could bring the country to a standstill in a new Winter of Discontent, it is feared.
Teachers and nurses are threatening walk-outs over pay and conditions.
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A call for coordinated industrial action — stopping short of a general strike — is also set to be passed on Wednesday when militant trade unions hold their annual rally in Brighton.
But Tory MP Greg Smith last night warned: “Unions need to understand that by contributing to economic decline they are doing their members’ job security no favours at all.”
Up to 1.9million public sector workers are set to strike or be balloted in the coming months, including Unite, Unison and GMB union members.
Unite boss Sharon Graham yesterday said: “I think there could be up to a million people on strike very, very soon.”
Unison has announced its members, including nursing staff and ambulance crews, will vote in the coming weeks.
And 155,000 postal workers, represented by the CWU, are already in the midst of industrial action, holding a total of 19 days of strikes up until Christmas.
Meanwhile, RMT boss Mick Lynch has said rail worker strikes could go on “indefinitely”.
The original Winter of Discontent took place in the late 1970s, when both private and public sectors demanded pay rises.
A government spokesman said ministers “will do whatever it can to minimise disruption”.
