12 September 2003
Senior trade unionists have warned that a government forum set up to discuss public services reform will quickly fail unless Labour entertains the idea of direct policy changes.
Delegates in Brighton were split over ministerial utterances on public services reform – although all sides agreed the sector would be the main political battleground in the run-up to the next general election.
While the moderate TUC leadership welcomed Chancellor Gordon Brown's assertion, in his keynote speech on September 9, that he would 'work together' with unions to address major concerns, some of the country's largest unions were unconvinced.
Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, which opposed the government's health 'privatisation' and foundation hospitals plans during the public services debate on September 10, said he wanted more than mere 'dialogue'.
Privately, Prentis, who attended last week's meeting between union bosses and Tony Blair, which led to the formation of the Public Services Forum, wants to see swift government concessions on policy issues. If not, sources told Public Finance, Unison could yet turn its back on the Forum.
Although Unison officials are adamant they will throw their weight behind the PSF in the coming months, any future withdrawal of the country's biggest union would be a huge blow to supporters of the deal, such as TUC general secretary Brendan Barber.
Cynicism about the forum, chaired by Cabinet Office minister Douglas Alexander, escalated after Brown indicated that there would be no radical departure from Labour's current programme across the public services.
But other unions see the forum as a genuine opportunity to shape future policy. Speaking at a fringe event hosted by the think-tank Unions 21, Eamonn O'Kane, general secretary of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers, said it represented 'the best chance to influence the government since trade unions turned down a similar opportunity in the 1970s'.
He cited a recent agreement on teaching assistants – when the NASUWT was directly involved in drafting regulations – as an example of how trade unionists can shape the agenda to the benefit of their members and the public. But he warned critics that such a 'partnership model' could only work if unions were 'prepared to bite their lips' at times.
Jack Dromey, national organiser at the T&G union, later told PF: 'The forum is a good thing in principle, but unions have to take something to the table other than mere criticism of current policy.
'We have to know what we are for, as well as against, and what the general public are for in this debate. I'm not convinced that there is a coherent set of ideas within the trade union movement yet.'
Labour, meanwhile, can expect opposition to key parts of its reform programme, such as plans for foundation hospitals and the involvement of the private sector, to escalate at its forthcoming party conference.
TUC delegates voted overwhelmingly to back Unison's motion decrying the initiatives and called for fair pay settlements to be extended across the sector.
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