Next week the UK's largest public sector trade union, Unison, will start the most sustained campaign of industrial action since the general strike of 1926.
As the spending cuts start to bite, trade unions from across the country are planning strike action. But are walkouts the best way for workers to achieve what they want in the 21st century? Might there be more effective negotiation techniques that would do less damage to the economy and ensure the public stay on side?
Hugh Muir examines what can be achieved by strike action, and whether a modernised legal framework for industrial relations is needed.
He visits the Unison national delegate conference to ask members why they are taking industrial action and asks Richard Tracey, an environment minister in Margaret Thatcher's government, for his views on the current situation.
Back in the studio, Hugh debates the issue further with the help of the Guardian's industrial editor, Dan Milmo; the assistant general secretary of Unite, Gail Cartmail; and the Confederation of British Industry's Neil Carberry.
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