08 August 2003
The government could be facing a 'defeat a day' at the Labour Party conference next month as unions prepare to vent their frustrations in up to five key policy areas.
Sources told Public Finance this week that ministers and officials have already launched a concerted campaign to dampen union anger and prevent a series of embarrassing defeats. In private meetings, union leaders have been warned that they risk fundamental damage to the party if they insist on attacking the government over public services, pensions, employment rights and Iraq.
Union leaders have been told that constituency Labour parties could become disaffected if the unions 'hijack' the annual conference, while internal strife will only give political capital to the Conservatives.
A union source conceded that these are real risks, but added that with little progress from last's year's often explosive conference, the unions feel they have been left with little option and will seek to defeat the government in a number of key policy areas.
High on the agenda will be public services. Despite the Treasury's changes to the Private Finance Initiative announced last month, they still fall well short of the public review demanded by Unison at last year's conference. The government was defeated in a vote and has since held a number of private meetings with unions to try to square their differences but no real progress has been made.
Unions will also be pressing for local government's deal on the two-tier workforce to be expanded into the rest of the public sector. The prime minister could use the conference to announce a review on this, sources are speculating, which could take the heat out of the debate.
The unions will demand answers on pensions, particularly proposals to increase retirement ages. They are also preparing to fight on employment law issues, claiming the UK has the weakest employment rights in the European Union.
The war in Iraq is likely to cause embarrassment. Unions also want a debate on 'reclaiming the party' and are expected to rubbish its policy-making machinery, 'Partnership in Power'.
However, Amicus, Unison, the GMB and the T&G denied claims that they had made a pact to vote together on these issues to inflict as much damage as possible on the government. Unison and the T&G said they would simply vote together on issues of common interest.
Local government is also attempting to muster its resources. Sir Jeremy Beecham, chair of the Local Government Association, has written to all council and group leaders urging them to use the autumn party political conferences to promote the role of councils. 'Too many government policies seem designed to squeeze the politics out of local governance. Let's make the autumn conferences a time to make national politicians notice our "vocalism for localism",' he wrote.
But privately some sources are already speculating that ministers have written off the Labour conference and will instead focus on the 'issues of government'.
PFaug2003
