by Chris McLaughlin and René Lavanchy
Trade union leaders left the TUC in Liverpool preparing to fight public sector cuts which Gordon Brown admitted for the first time are on the way under his Government.
Mr Brown delivered no detail in his speech to Congress, but left angry delegates guessing at what he meant by the promise to cut “lower priority budgets” rather than “frontline services”.
The highly trailed defensive tactic against the Tories went against the mood of a conference which was summed up in a warning by TUC general secretary Brendan Barber that “public expenditure cuts would turn any progress towards recovery into a nosedive”.
GMB general secretary Paul Kenny said the Prime Minister’s speech had marked out a “clear choice” between Labour and the Tories, but civil service PCS leader Mark Serwotka described it as “deeply disappointing”.
Anticipating Mr Brown’s speech, CWU general secretary Billy Hayes warned a fringe meeting: “We will not win an election by saying, ‘the Tories will cut 10 per cent but we will cut a little less’. It just won’t wash. I just hope… he won’t say it’ll be worse under the Tories.”
Mr Kenny raised the threat of wildcat strikes spreading from engineering construction to other sectors if the next Government tried to slash public sector jobs and pay. Noting that there were “members of the press” in the room, he said: “No one would ever agree to breaking the law, but workers have to be protected.”
The Conservative Party maintained a low profile at Congress, but according to Richard Balfe, David Cameron’s personal envoy to the trade union movement, they are now working closer with unions and the TUC than ever as a Tory victory becomes more likely.
Mr Balfe, a former Labour MEP, said one big union had asked for a meeting with Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary Theresa May, and that unions had held more than 50 meetings with shadow ministers this year. “They’re increasingly coming to us”, he said. TUC general secretary Brendan Barber will meet Mr Cameron after Congress.
Mr Balfe added that Mr Cameron – who told reporters last week he wanted “maximum consensus” with the unions over public sector pensions – has told his Shadow Cabinet not to turn down union requests for meetings.
Both pensions and national pay bargaining are potential flashpoints between unions and a Conservative government. Mr Balfe said he
did not know of any plans to abolish national pay bargaining, “but it’s a thing I’m sure will be discussed”.
He promised that both the minimum wage and the Unionlearn scheme, under which unions and employers co-operate to allow staff to learn on the job, would remain. “I want to knock out the stupid wing of the Tory Party that regards the unions as their enemy.
