No sign of breakthrough as talks begin over public pensions strikes

Officials from the TUC and several trade unions were meeting with Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude and Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander ahead of a planned 24-hour walkout by up to 750,000 teachers, civil servants and other public sector workers on Thursday.

The meeting follows an increasingly bitter war of words between unions and government ministers over controversial plans to reform public sector pensions.

Unison leader Dave Prentis has warned that his union will ballot over a million workers for industrial action if the dispute is not resolved, predicting that walkouts in the autumn would be the biggest since the 1926 General Strike.

Today’s talks have almost certainly come too late to avert Thursday’s strike, which is set to close thousands of schools in England and Wales and disrupt work at government departments, courts, jobcentres and at ports.

One of the union negotiators said today’s talks were “fraught with difficulties”, while Mr Maude said it was “disappointing” that a strike had been called for this week while negotiations were continuing.

Talks are likely to continue into July, while unions want to have separate negotiations to discuss plans for different pension schemes across the public sector.

The strike on Thursday will involve members of the National Union of Teachers (NUT), the Association of Teachers and lecturers (ATL), the University and College Union (UCU) and the Public and Commercial Services union, although students, campaign groups and other activists are also planning action including marches and protests.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the PCS, accused the Government of “spinning desperately” to accuse public sector workers of being over-paid, with gold-plated pensions.

The extra pension contributions public sector workers will have to pay will go straight to the Treasury, said Mr Serwotka, adding: “It is not pensions that are unsustainable, but this government’s lack of economic strategy, which means instead of growing our economy out of trouble, they are trying to cut their way out.

“As Greece is proving, attempting to cut your way out of trouble leads to disaster.”

UCU leader Sally Hunt said her members were “the most unlikely militants” and said the government’s tactics so far had caused a lot of “tension.”