Unions plan 'days of action'

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One official said the Government would only have itself to blame if the Conservatives win the next general election.

Anger surfaced during the opening debate at the TUC Congress in Brighton when delegates criticised the Government's policy of trying to limit public sector pay rises to 2% in the face of rising inflation.

The conference agreed to organise days of action against the pay policy, including a national demonstration.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services, which is threatening a three-month campaign of industrial action by civil servants over pay, said workers were facing "real hardships".

He said the Government had "totally lost the plot", adding: "We need to challenge the pay policy and co-ordinate our action and get tens of hundreds of thousands of people onto the streets.

"No doubt we will be blamed for letting in the Tories, but the fault lies with Gordon Brown and the Labour Government. If the Tories win the election, the Government only have themselves to blame."

Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of Unison, said: "We expect our Labour Government to get its act together, stop squabbling over the leadership and seriously address the problems of working people, who feel let down."

Mr Sonnet accused the Government of "shabby treatment" of nurses, teachers, civil servants, cleaners and other workers, and said ministers listened more to their fair-weather friends" in business.

Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, accused the Government of "lying" over pay after ministers intervened to stage a recommended wage award. "Let us hurt them - that's the only way we will get fair pay," he said.