Brown runs into a barrage of criticism from unions
Seamus Milne and David Gow Wednesday September 13, 2000
Union leaders yesterday lashed out at Gordon Brown for failing to act over "the disaster" overtaking British manufacturing and what one called "idiotic ideas" about working harder and "half-baked lectures about effort." As the Chancellor sat on the TUC conference podium GMB general union leader John Edmonds hit back at yesterday's report of Mr Browns call for a national productivity drive and told him: "Gordon, you just have to do something about the monetary policy committee" of the Bank of England.
The committees decision about interest rates lay behind the high pound's impact on manufacturing jobs, he declared: "It should spend less time fretting about inflation and more time responding to the needs of producers and ex porters".
"Why cannot we have at least one member who works in manufacturing industry, or knows about manufacturing industry, or at least lives in a town that understands the importance of manufacturing industry." He asked, demanding treasury action to reduce the value of sterling.
Before Mr Brown rose to address the congress, Mr Edmonds said he had read in the papers - a clear reference to the chancellor's trailed productivity appeal - that one solution to the manufacturing crisis was that British workers should work harder.
The union leader said that whoever thought up "these idiotic ideas" should go and see women workers operating sewing machines on piece rate, who were desperate to increase their productivity but instead face the sack.
He was echoed by Sir Ken Jackson, general secretary Amalgamated Engineering & Electrical Union, who told Mr Brown that the over-valued pound was "pricing British manufacturing out of the market, wiping out productivity gains overnight and prevent the investment needed to compete in the Global Economy."
The Chancellor, who used his speech to insist that there would be no "short-term lurches" in tax policy in response to current protests, was at pain to defuse union criticism by emphasising that he understood their concerns about the exchange rate and manufacturing and by down playing his trailed demands for wage restraint.
"We will continue to do more to support manufacturing." He pledged, wooing his audience with the prize of "full employment sustained for a generation," built on growth and pro ductivity.
He appealed to unions and employers to work together with government to close the productivity gap with Britain's competitors, arguing that this was the foundation on which the country could "achieve full employment, abolish child and pensioner poverty, build world class public services in education and health."
But there could be "no short -term lurches in spending policy or tax policy, no irresponsible spending increases or inflationary pay rises that put youth jobs at risk, no quick fixes or soft options, that would put long-term stability, public services and our policy for full employment at risk."
Mr Brown used his first speech as chancellor to the TUC to praise the traditions and achievements of the labour movement, hailing the trade union pioneers as "idealists not dreamers" who "knew it is easier to take your own share that fight for everyone to have a fair share".
But his reiteration of plans for an increase in the minimum wage and promise the ensure that pensioners gained more from Britain's rising prosperity left TUC delegates demanding more details.
Union leaders were far less critical after they had heard the chancellor, but never the less wanted to know more. Rodney Bickerstaffe, leader of the public service union Unison, said he would have like to have heard more about what the chancellor planned to do about public sector pay and union concerns about the creeping privatisation of public services and need to restore the pension-earning link.
Mr Edmunds said he hoped Mr Brown remarks about training opened the way for legally binding obligations on employers to invest in skills, but ruled out the chancellors suggestion that unions might move away from annual pay bargaining to promote economic stability.