Faithful to the end

If the rhetoric is to be believed, relations between the unions and the Labour government have reached a new low. From the seaside resorts where the unions are gathering for their annual conferences to the loud hailers of Congress House, the message to ministers is uniform: remember your core supporters.

Dave Prentis, the general secretary of Unison and not someone regarded as a rabble-rouser, warns Labour cannot take the backing of public sector workers for granted at the next election, while TUC general secretary Brendan Barber (above), a man naturally disposed to moderation, says Gordon Brown needs to “reconfigure Labour’s DNA” if he wants to maintain the support of the unions.

But are things really that bad?

What is said in the conference halls is crafted for the shop stewards and activists, not the delicate ears of ministers. And much of the tub-thumping can be seen as bosses trying to ingratiate themselves with an audience which is far more agitated than the majority of the membership. It would be remarkable, also, to find a union without some form of demand of the government, especially at a time when the party has never been so reliant on the brotherhood for funding.

That is not to say the claims are somehow insincere. The current shopping list includes demands for protection of workers who fall victim to private equity chiefs; a more ruthless approach to companies and directors avoiding UK tax; reforms to make balloting for strike action less laborious and help ensure that British jobs go to British workers (competition laws not withstanding). The government would no doubt prefer a bit more gratitude for where it has delivered, most recently on rights for agency workers.

But for the most part, relations between the two sides are more amicable than the public hectoring suggests.
With the exception of one glaring issue – pay – the tenor of discussions is efficient and cordial.

This is not to underplay the difficulties presented by Gordon Brown’s call for public sector pay restraint.

The forthcoming political season will be characterised by the battle between those seeking to take the economic high ground and those representing people genuinely struggling to make ends meet on unacceptably low salaries.

No doubt there will also be scrapping over the ideological direction of Labour.

The sigh of disappointment at Gordon Brown can be heard most loudly on the Left. (Though the memories of those involved are remarkably short. Just two years ago, the then chancellor’s speech to the TUC was met with near-silence by a clearly dissatisfied Congress.)

These divisions on pay and political direction will strain the partnership, but a reconciliation will not be far away.

Union members may feel disillusioned with the Blair/Brown years but they dread the prospect of a Conservative government bent on rewarding their hedge-fund backers, and stalling or repealing hard-won labour reforms.
The image of Prime Minister Cameron on the steps of No 10 is proving remarkably successful at re-bonding the Labour movement’s historic partners.