PM’s partnership with unions draws criticism
The PM moved yesterday to appease union leaders troubled by the Government’s public sector reforms by announcing plans to set up a forum to hear issues and concerns.
The forum, chaired by the Cabinet Office minister Douglas Alexander, came about through joint discussions with the unions over the last couple months.
It was finalised by Tony Blair and union leaders at Downing Street yesterday afternoon.
Though unions remain cautious about the further expansion of foundation hospitals and the use of university tuition fees, TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, welcomed the forum and expressed the hope that “real dialogue” would take place.
“I don’t think that it is going to be a talking shop. It is going to be a mechanism where we can have a serious dialogue – a real dialogue – where Government will be able to test their ideas and be able to take then account of the reactions of unions to those ideas,” he said.
Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott and the Trade and Industry Secretary, Patrica Hewitt, are expected to attend the forum.
The forum may examine the use of targets in the public sector, as well as pay, workloads, and the question of raising the retirement age.
The announcement comes ahead of TUC’s Brighton conference next week and the Labour conference later in October.
Douglas Alexander told BBC’s Newsnight that the forum was for “dialogue and discussion” but the Government was “determined” to ensure public service reforms in schools and hospitals continued.
Mr. Alexander insisted the forum had “absolutely no ability to veto the policy of the Government.”
“This forum will also have no role in aiding the drawing up of a manifesto. First of all the Trade Union Congress is not affiliated to the Labour Party, and secondly this is a Government discussion that is being taken forward by the TUC, rather than that of a particular party, he said.
Tony Blair’s presence at the meeting yesterday was significant, he said.
“The Prime Minister was at the meeting today and I think that reflects the seriousness of his concern, both for the employers and the employees, that he has been meeting them this week to discuss some of the important issues.”
Shadow Education Secretary, Damian Green cautioned: “I think the trade unions have scented that Tony Blair is now relatively weak and friendless. They have said that now is the their time to get back in there. They have got back in there, they have been granted this public sector forum and I think it shows that, in the end, New Labour is dying.”
He concluded that Britain was “going back to Old Labour.”
Tim Yeo MP, Conservative trade and industry spokesman, said: “This summer has seen the prime minister desperately short of friends. His party has been split from top to bottom, on everything from Iraq and the euro to foundation hospitals and tuition fees.
“Now he has been reduced to beer and sandwiches with his union paymasters at the expense of the real reform of our public services.”
Jack Dromey, the national organiser of the TGWU, warned yesterday that foundation hospitals were politically disastrous, akin to the Tory poll tax.
