The general secretary of the UK's biggest private sector union has warned of a 'summer of discontent' over pay - just as more rail strikes were announced.
Sharon Graham, who recently took over Unite, said there could be hundreds of disputes involving tens of thousands of people if workers are made to "pay the price for inflation".
She said employers making a profit from workers should pay them a "proper fair wage" and that calls to limit pay rises to try to counter inflation were "abhorrent".
"Any employer who can pay, who has made profit out of workers, has to pay a proper fair wage to those workers," she said.
Her rallying cry came as members of another union, RMT, announced that workers at Network Rail and 14 train operators are to strike for another two days in August in a row over jobs, pay and conditions.
Members of the union will walk out on 18 and 20 August. The RMT had already announced a strike for 27 July, the day before the Commonwealth Games opens in Birmingham.
It comes after thousands of train operator and Network rail workers walked out in a national strike in June - the biggest of its kind in decades.
Separately, train drivers at eight rail companies have also agreed to strike on 30 July in a dispute over pay, union Aslef has said.
Pay demand
Speaking to the BBC in her first broadcast interview, Mrs Graham said that calls from the government and the Bank of England that workers should not ask for high wage rises were "totally wrong" and "abhorrent".
Tens of thousands of members of her union were involved in disputes up and down the country, with many double digit pay rises won, for bus drivers, bin collectors, and factory workers, including in one case a rise of 23%, she said.
She said it was "not militant" to ask for pay rises matching or exceeding the rate that prices rise, with inflation currently running at more than 9%.
Last month Treasury minister Simon Clarke warned employees not to expect their wages to rise along with the soaring rate of inflation, saying wage rises help push up the cost of living.
His comments echoed those made earlier this year by Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey, who warned workers to avoid asking for big pay rises.
Ms Graham denied that there was a risk of a "seventies-style" spiral of wages and prices which would prolong the period of very high inflation, instead blaming a rise in profits at big companies.
FTSE 100
The UK's top share index, the FTSE 100, was up 12 points at 7,052 shortly after opening this morning, following yesterday's 116 point drop.
Companies reporting today
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