by Chris McLaughlin
UNION leaders gave a qualified welcome to the Government’s “bold and pro-active” jobs initiatives this week but called on Gordon Brown to take tougher action to ensure the banks are “brought to book”.
Mr Brown launched a £20 billion loan guarantee scheme aimed at filling a business credit gap caused by the banks’ refusal to take up and lend on the vast bulk of £37 billion made available by the Treasury.
The move, announced at a “jobs summit” of employers and trade union leaders, came as ministers hinted at a “financial restructuring” of car manufacturers whose bosses and workers have called on the Government for help as thousands of jobs are being shed in industry and retail everyday throughout the country.
In a BBC interview, Mr Brown signalled further injections of taxpayers’ money into the banks with a scheme to relieve them of “toxic assets” of US sub-prime products sold on to British-based banks in order to “clean out the balance sheets” and ensure “they can trust the banking system wholly again”.
But unions warned Mr Brown that the Government must go further to ensure that his pledges to help the jobless and those facing the threat of unemployment do not fail.
GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said: “Summits such as this do nothing unless the Government can tackle the banks. They have got to be brought to book. They are holding money back and squeezing business badly.”
Derek Simpson, the Unite joint general secretary, said: “We have been campaigning for a Keynesian approach to kick-start the economy. Creating jobs while investing in Britain’s infrastructure demonstrates that Labour is prepared to be bold and pro-active. There is more work to be done, particularly in the shape of strategic support for British manufacturing, but the Government is undoubtedly working hard to support British families. Under David Cameron the recession would last until Doomsday.”
Shopworkers’ union USDAW, which has seen tens of thousands of jobs lost in the retail and supermarket sector in recent months welcomed the jobs initiative which coincides with the announcement of the recruitment of more than 22,000 jobs in four major supermarket chains.
Brendan Barber of the TUC said it was vital that the Government tackled the growing ranks of long-term unemployed. “The Government must strain every economic muscle to make sure the recession is as short and shallow as possible. But more and more people will find themselves on the dole for more than six months during 2009, and all the research shows that the long-term jobless find it even harder to get new work without extra help and support.”
