TUC approves pay campaign

A major protest campaign against the government's public sector pay policy has been approved by delegates at the TUC conference.

Limiting increases to two per cent a year was "unfair and unjust", according to a motion approved by the vast majority of trade unionists.

Mark Serwotka, of the PCS union, called ministers' argument that it was needed to stem inflation "morally bankrupt".

However an amendment urging the TUC to go further and organise a public sector-wide national strike was rejected.

The conference motion, proposed by Unison and seconded by the PCS, demanded "days of action including a major national demonstration against the government's pay policy".

Unison deputy general secretary Keith Sonnet told delegates: "Public sector workers have had enough.

"They've been saying very loudly and clearly that they will not accept the imposition."

And Serwotka added that: "We need to get tens of thousands of people on the streets to show how angry they feel."

He said that, if Labour lost its core vote at the next election, and the Conservatives won, the current government would "have themselves to blame".

But the Prison Officers' Association said the motion did not go far enough and tabled an amendment calling for a series of strikes across the public sector.

This was rejected by delegates using a card vote, after a show of hands proved inconclusive.

The PCS has already announced that 270,000 civil servants working in every government department were to be balloted on a three-month long programme of industrial action which will extend into the new year.

They will try to co-ordinate any strikes with other unions representing public sector workers including teachers and council staff which would cause huge problems for the government later this year.

Union leaders have criticised the prime minister for holding a cabinet meeting in Birmingham while pay is being debated at the TUC conference.

Leaders of Unison warned the government there was a "huge level of unhappiness" among workers over pay and other issues which could feed through to the next general election.