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Unions demand right to secondary strikes
Nicholas Cecil, Chief Political Correspondent18 Jul 2008
Union chiefs will today present a shopping list of demands to ministers as the cash-strapped Labour party draws up new policies.
At a meeting in Downing Street they will lay out a schedule of 130 reforms.
They include a new right to take supportive strike action, tax deductions for union membership subscriptions, internet balloting and new rights for collective bargaining on equality issues.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has warned he will not bow to pressure to restore the right to take supportive strike action, vowing "no return" to Seventies-style industrial relations.
But Labour has become so reliant on the unions for funding - currently about 90 per cent of the party's income - that they will seek to flex their muscles at a key policy forum at Warwick University next Thursday. Many company bosses will be wary that Labour may bow to union demands that could damage their businesses.
The unions want hospital cleaning brought back in-house, NHS prescription charges axed, a new deal on public sector pay and the adult minimum wage extended to 18- to 21-year-olds and apprentices.
Tougher health and safety requirements on bosses would be imposed, train services switched to "not-forprofit" services and the six major energy firms would be broken up.
City academies would have to pay the same rate to teachers as other schools and free school meals would be introduced for all primary school pupils.
Union general secretaries were set to meet Cabinet Office minister Ed Miliband, who is responsible for Labour's election manifesto, and employment minister Pat McFadden.
