Unions to demand a more radical Labour government
Leaders of the UK’s biggest unions meet today at a conference entitled ” Working Together for a Radical Third Term”, which is expected to call for the Government to take a turn to the left ahead of the next general election.
The meeting is being hosted the left wing think tank Catalyst, and will be addressed by the leaders of UNISON, Amicus, the Transport and General Workers Union and the GMB. The meeting is also being attended by leaders from a host of other unions.
A leaked document seen by the Guardian newspaper ahead of the meeting condemned the Private Finance Initiative as “discredited” and private sector involvement in schools and hospitals as a “costly failure”.
Speaking ahead of the meeting last night on BBC2’s “Newsnight” programme, GMB general secretary Kevin Curran warned, ” If we do not have a radical third term, my very strong view is that there will be a rift.”
Union leaders have long been concerned about the Government’s apparent preference for business over the interests of workers, and after a long history of relatively fractious relations, have increasingly been working together.
This co-operation was in evidence at the 2003 Labour Party Conference in Bournemouth, when the unions successfully defeated the Government on the floor of conference over Foundation Hospitals.
At a landmark fringe meeting towards the end of that Labour Party conference, the leaders of the “Big Four” – Mr Curran, Derek Simpson of Amicus, Dave Prentis of Unison and Tony Woodley of the T&G – shared a platform on this very matter, along with CWU leader Billy Hayes.
At that meeting, the union leaders had insisted that they were committed not just to Labour winning a third term as such, but to winning a radical third term. Mr Simpson warned that while the unions do not expect Labour to be able to provide everything they want, the Government “must be showing our colours and kicking our way”.
Last night, Mr Curran pressed the urgency with which the unions regard the matter. He warned, “I think the unions will insist on a split if they do not get their way on a third term manifesto. I cannot, in all good faith and if that situation was to arise, I could not stand in front of GMB members and tell them to carry on.”
Quoted in the Guardian, Mr Simpson stated, ” Domestic issues are top of the trade union agenda and must be top of the agenda of the Labour party in the run-up to the election.”
Today’s meeting comes as Labour Party chairman Ian McCartney launches a new European Parliament election document in Wales, entitled “A People’s Europe – The Trade Union Case for Europe” during a visit to Treforest, near Pontypridd.
