130 JUST DEMANDS...
Friday, July 18, 2008 at 07:24PM I am sure you will be familiar with the expression he who pays the piper calls the tune. The British Trade Unions fund the Labour Party which is governing this country. But now they have some demands. 130 of them to be precise.
The full scale of the trade unions' call for a change of political course by the Brown government can be disclosed as general secretaries meet senior ministers and Downing Street officials to discuss 130 demands they have tabled. The complete list, obtained by the Guardian, includes a right to take supportive strike action, scrapping NHS prescription charges, bringing all hospital cleaning back in-house, and a new agreement on public sector pay with the Treasury. The 130 union amendments, graded core, primary and secondary, are to be put to the Labour national policy forum next week. In a sign of the degree of union coordination, the amendments are coded, with names of proposed movers and seconders listed. Many have already been discussed with ministers.
As this government gets weaker and weaker, the unions detect they can gain the upper hand and get the swings to the hard left they hanker for.
View Printer Friendly Version
Reader Comments (2)
New Labour didn't long survive Tony Blair's career. I wonder will the Labour Party itself survive as a political force. Certainly not if it is going back to being the party of the unions.
Rod Spart and his mates are back. A weakened government (and a Labour party strapped for cash) will have to concede at least some of these demands. It will be an interesting spectacle at the party conference in October.