This is the Conservative Party’s default position when in power. There is nothing more relishing in the minds of many Tories than a major clash with the labour movement at a time when austerity forced through public sector cuts is already hitting their members hard and – as they perceive it – the public has neither sympathy for the union cause nor appetite for the fight.
They have been wrong in the past and while the collective strength of the union movement may not be what it was a generation ago, they could be wrong again now. Recent polls might invite Labour Party and union members to join Unison’s Dave Prentis in the belief that the unions could indeed win this fight against paying more for less.
The public do not appear to be convinced by the Government line, so faithfully trotted out by its right-wing supporters in the press, that public sector pensions are over-generous. When presented with the raw meat which, in the Hutton proposals, lies behind the coalition’s plans for pension reform, the public turns up its nose. The Government, scarred by policy U-turns and internal divisions, is on a stickier wicket than it or its backwoods Tory MPs may think. The attacks on public sector pensions are political – as delegates to the Unison conference in Manchester rightly argued. They are political because the pensions legacy acts as a barrier to the privatisation of services.
Unison, as Mr Prentis says, does not want a confrontation but a negotiated resolution. That is the position of any union wanting the best outcome which industrial action rarely delivers. But he and his union officers are right to prepare for the worst, not least in the wake of signs from Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury, that the Government is negotiating in bad faith.
He may feel his call to arms deserves a little more overt support from Labour leaders, who he recently accused of acting too much like a cautious government and too little like an effective opposition. In terms of public opinion it may be wise for Ed Balls and his colleagues to be wary of throwing themselves wholeheartedly behind the cause, but there are some issues where Labour cannot sit on the fence while claiming the moral high ground. A negotiated settlement would be the best outcome, but with Labour backing the unions.
