Unions ramp up campaign against UK spending cuts

Britain's unions plan a campaign of political pressure to try to turn voters against the coalition government's plans to slash public spending, the Trades Union Congress (TUC) said on Wednesday. The TUC will use its annual congress next month to launch the drive.
It will focus on harnessing voter discontent, rather than widespread strike action, as the best way to influence the government, general secretary Brendan Barber said. "(The campaign) is about trying to get a change of policy on this core strategy the government have committed themselves to of massive cuts in public spending," Barber, whose union umbrella group represents 6.5 million workers, told Reuters.
"There is going to be a massive general political reaction to that. That is not about strikes and industrial disputes, that is about real voter discontent as they realise the implications of the government's decisions." The campaign is likely to involve actions such as marches to mobilise public opposition.
The Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition, which took office in May, has pledged to cut departmental budgets by at least 25 percent as it tackles a budget deficit running at around 11 percent of national output.
Many unions have promised protests to coincide with the government's October 20 spending review, which will detail where the axe will fall.
Barber said a "volatile cocktail" of changes to public sector jobs, including pay freezes and likely pension reform, could provoke specific disputes, but that wider public opposition would only come when people became aware of what cuts to public services and welfare would mean in practice.
"The more that becomes clear ... the government's political position and political support will begin to erode very, very quickly," he said. "We are concerned with winning political change and we are in it for the long haul."
While finance minister George Osborne said cuts announced in an emergency budget were "progressive", meaning putting a greater burden on those more able to pay, they have come under attack for hitting the poorest hardest.
Lawmakers from the Liberal Democrats, the centre-left junior coalition partner, are already running into opposition from their grassroots supporters. Barber said unions hoped to use tensions within the coalition as leverage.