Questions Without Notice from the Party Leaders

Part of 1. Questions to the First Minister – in the Senedd at 1:46 pm on 14 March 2023.

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Photo of Mark Drakeford Mark Drakeford Labour 1:46, 14 March 2023

I've never known any public sector workers who want to be on strike. Llywydd, the truth of the matter is is that members of the RCN have been to driven to express their reaction to a decade of austerity, followed by galloping inflation on the money that they have to manage with every week. And you will never find a Welsh Government Minister who would say that public sector workers driven to that way of doing things don't deserve to be respected, and they are respected here in Wales, and they are included, as I say, within the social partnership arrangements. We'll have an opportunity tomorrow to vote on the Social Partnership and Public Procurement (Wales) Bill. I look forward to the support of the leader of the opposition and his members in that—. Oh, it's today, I beg your pardon—later today. So, I look forward to his support then. 

Many people say, in the heat of the moment, things. I've been reading what was being said between the Secretary of State for Health and the Secretary of State for Education when they competed with one another to criticise teachers during the COVID outbreak. I think those things are better put on one side. I've set out the position of the Government, and unambiguously that is one of inclusion, respect and joint approaches to problem solving.