Union leaders were holding a heated showdown with Justice Secretary Jack Straw over compensation for pleural plaques sufferers as Tribune went to press.
Mr Straw told a policy seminar that unions had accepted that medical evidence showed there was no need to compensate people with the asbestos-related disease.
But Alan Ritchie, general secretary of construction union UCATT, told the conference: “Despite what Jack Straw said… the trade union leaders do not accept the so-called medical evidence about pleural plaques.” Mr Ritchie and the GMB union then met Mr Straw privately Gordon Brown promised the TUC Congress that ministers would consider the issue when Parliament returns.
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