Blair gets stony glances at TU meet

By Hasan Suroor

LONDON, SEPT 11. In an unprecedented snub to a Labour Prime Minister, Britain's powerful trade unions today cold-shouldered Mr. Tony Blair when he appeared at their annual conference in Brighton amid growing anger over his plans to involve the private sector in running public services. Instead of the customary bonhomie, he met with stony glances from delegates who were clearly not impressed by what he had to say in defence of his policy which they regard as privatisation through the backdoor.

On Monday, it was the Trade and Industry Secretary, Ms. Patricia Hewitt, who failed embarrassingly in her attempt to strike up a rapport with what used to be the Labour Party's backbone and today it was Mr. Blair's turn to get a polite thumbs down marking a new low in his Government's stand-off with trade unions. While one major trade union, Unison, has threatened industrial action if workers' interests are affected by the proposed public sector ``reforms'', the GMB, Britain's biggest union, plans to withdraw its one million pound donation to the Party to protest ``creeping privatisation''. Huge posters with his photograph under the caption ``Can they trust him not to privatise the NHS?'' greeted Mr. Blair at the venue of the conference where the mood was reported to be belligerent with leading trade union figures accusing the Government of being out of touch with public mood. According to an opinion poll, 24 per cent of Labour voters would not support the party at the next election if key public services end up in the private sector.

The new militancy coincides with a rise in trade unions' membership for the first time in two decades and, according to The Times, there is a ``palpable air of confidence at the conference'' with old warriors ``squaring for a fight'' over Mr. Blair's controversial public-private initiative under which failing schools and hospitals are to be run by private sector. While Mr. Blair insists that the idea simply is to improve the delivery of public services with no extra cost to the consumer, trade unions fear that private companies would put profit above public welfare. There are also fears relating to the prospects of workers in utilities which are handed over to private firms. The latter are reported to be reluctant to guarantee that all such staff would be retained and it is not clear whether their present salaries and other benefits would be protected.

The GMB general secretary, Mr. John Edmonds, has accused Mr. Blair of attacking the ``foundations of the Labour Party'' and ``testing the loyalty of Labour Party members to destruction''. The GMB chief and president of the Trade Union Congress, Mr. Bill Morris, said:``We need to acknowledge that a society which largely depends on the private sector to deliver public services would be a very different kind of society from one which is required to create equality and social justice.'' The militant rhetoric at the conference came amid reports that nearly 250,000 jobs in the manufacturing industry were likely to go by Christmas. It fuelled criticism of the Blair Government's policies which are widely seen as pro-private enterprise.

Mr. Blair however strongly denied the charge saying the ``notion that either the Government has gone anti-public service or is privatising public services is fatuous.'' He said all that he was doing was to improve the delivery of public services - one of the key promises his party made to the voters. He assured that workers' interests would not be sacrificed and gave figures showing that salaries of teachers and nurses had risen since he came to power four years ago.

Observers feared that the tension was likely to grow because the Prime Minister had made it clear that he was not going to back down under pressure. Trade unions, on the other hand, were as determined not to be shown the door without a fight.

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Section  : International
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