The Tories are attempting to smother the biggest democratic movement in Britain. Even before their latest round of pernicious new anti-union laws were imposed, Britain had – in the words of Tony Blair – “the most restrictive union laws in the western world.” As an example: in 2010, when 81% of Unite’s British Airways members voted for industrial action with a 71% turnout, a judge ruled the strike would be illegal. Why? On a technicality: the judge declared that the union had not properly disseminated the fact that 11 of the 9,282 ballots cast had been spoilt. Len McCluskey, the leader of Unite, is absolutely right: if Britain’s pillars of society in the public sector wish to defy these authoritarian laws, they should be supported.

The Tories boast of rolling back the state: in practice that means stripping away regulations from vested interests like the financial sector which bankroll the party. When it comes to the mass democratic movement of millions of workers, the state is there in full force. In all strike ballots, turnout must be at least 50%, and in services deemed to be essential – like transport or education – at least 40% of those entitled to vote must vote to strike. No such threshold is applied to our MPs, or to forming a government to implement laws that permanently transform the entire country. Indeed, there was no such threshold for the EU referendum whose consequences will be felt for generations to come.

Bear in mind, too, that building support for strikes is difficult in a country where legislation entrenches anti-union cultures in workplaces. The government stubbornly refuses to implement electronic voting – or to allow voting in workplaces – which would increase strike ballot participation. Relying on easily-lost and troublesome letters sent to ask for consent for strike action undeniably suppresses potential turnout. The law exists to make it almost impossible for many workers to go on strike at all.

The law exists to make it almost impossible for many workers to go on strike at all

Teachers who train the next generation and on whom our next generation depends; nurses who tend to us when we’re sick and save our lives; firefighters who so courageously marched into a burning Grenfell Tower – all have suffered a real-terms pay cut. That’s what a pay freeze is after inflation, which today hurtled to 2.9%. Their pockets are being emptied, with pay cuts of up to 14%. We live in one of the wealthiest countries in human history in which there are nurses driven to food banks. All these workers have been expected to pay for a crisis caused by the financial institutions who bankroll the ruling Conservative party.

The Tories are already in retreat on the pay cap because of pressure from Labour and the broader labour movement. But it’s increasingly clear they will revert to the age-old Tory approach of divide and rule, lifting the cap only for some workers. That is unacceptable. If workers vote to strike and choose to defy legislation preventing them from taking action, then I for one will be joining them on the picket lines.

The onslaught against the unions has had terrible consequences for our society. Living standards for the bottom half of workers began to stagnate years before the financial crash; for the bottom third, they were already declining.

That was in large part down to unions lacking teeth and unable to prevent the concentration of wealth in employers’ bank accounts. It meant billions more in taxpayers’ money spent on in-work benefits to top up wages, and workers accumulating more and more personal debt to the detriment of the economy.

That’s why stringent anti-union laws have to be revoked. In the meantime, Len McCluskey was demonised over his role in Labour’s political direction but he has been vindicated. He is spot on here, too. Any action workers take to confront the monstrous injustice of being compelled to pay for a crisis they had nothing to do with should be wholeheartedly supported. After all, they’re striking for all of us.

• Owen Jones is a Guardian columnist