TUC's relationship with Labour 'confused and must be addressed' - 11 September 2006

The TUC's relationship with the Labour party is "confused and needs to be addressed", and the obsession at this year's TUC Congress with internal Labour politics "will not help us recruit a single member", the leader of the union representing senior public servants, Jonathan Baume, will say at the Unions 21 rally at TUC Congress on Tuesday 12 September.

"I am not questioning the union/Labour Party link, and of course if Labour-affiliated unions want to discuss the Labour leadership then it is perfectly proper for them to do so internally or at the Labour Party conference. But this isn't the Labour Party conference; it's the TUC Congress and the majority of unions are not affiliated to any political party. So the TUC should not be seen just as the bridge between the unions and the Labour Party but as a bridge between the unions and the government of the day."

Baume will say that it is only natural for trade unions to have close relations with the current Labour Government, which has created one of the most benign environments for unions in the past 30 years. However, he questions whether they would be capable of working with any future, non-Labour government, especially since over the past nine years many unions have been broadly opposed to Labour Government policy and that seems unlikely to change with a new party leader.

"If the unions are in semi-permanent opposition, why should Gordon Brown or David Cameron or any other potential future Prime Minister spend much time talking to us?"

Baume cites Monday's pensions composite as an example of unions in denial. "The TUC has played an invaluable role in protecting pension rights and shaping the white paper. But we won?t be taken seriously if we remain in denial about the implications of increasing life expectancy - the elephant in the room - particularly if we are considering changes in 2050. Just imagine Congress in 1962 trying to imagine society in 2006. "It is critical that we ensure that TUC motions provide a meaningful context for the TUC to influence real policy making or we risk effectively writing ourselves out of the debate."

Baume also emphasised that unions' call to repeal all the 'anti union laws' is equally misguided.

"Much of that legislation was a legitimate response to the refusal of unions to get our own house in order, and it's about time we acknowledged that.

"The 21st century poses enormous challenges. Globalisation and technology are changing the framework within which unions across the world have to operate as well as for political parties. Society and the economy in the UK are changing radically.

"We have to be brutally honest and have the courage to face up to some very real challenges. We have to start talking and listening to the vast majority of workers who no longer see a role for trade unions in their working lives. Have an institutional strategy for embedding unions in key decision-making that cannot be unpicked. Have agendas that face up to contemporary problems not agendas which seek to take us 40 years back.

"I think we need to start asking the right questions, and that's what we should be here in Brighton for."

Notes for Editors
1. The FDA is the trade union and professional body representing 16,000 of the UK's senior civil and public servants. Our members include policy advisors, senior managers, tax inspectors, economists, statisticians, accountants, special advisers, government lawyers, diplomats, crown prosecutors and NHS managers.
2. The FDA (formerly First Division Association) should be referred to simply as "The FDA" and can be described as "the senior public servants' union".
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