Union's shift to the left could embarrass Blair

BARRIE CLEMENT

Labour Editor

Tony Blair faces a potentially embarrassing leftward shift by the public service union Unison, which is shortly to become the Labour Party's most powerful affiliate.

A process was set in train yesterday which is likely to result in the country's largest union assuming the biggest block vote at Labour's policy- making conferences.

It is the first time that a public sector union has become the party's biggest financial backer.

From the first working day of the new year members of the old local government union, Nalgo - one of three which merged to form Unison - were able to opt in to the new union's affiliated political fund. Until yesterday they had only been able to participate in the old Nalgo account which was not linked to Labour.

Insiders predict that there will be an influx into the affiliated fund of left-wing Nalgo activists who could tip the balance in critical votes.

Unison officials have attempted to circumscribe the influence of the far left by insisting that only Labour members can be elected to the regional and national committees of the affiliated fund. However, such a strategy will have a limited impact as many devotees of the hard left are also Labour Party members. Labour's policy-making annual conference often makes decisions on the basis of the votes of a handful of delegates. While the share of the union vote at the annual conference will decrease from 70 per cent to 50 per cent at this year's assembly, Mr Blair's aides will be anxious to ensure that Unison is "on side" when important decisions are made.

Labour will also be faced with the prospect that for the first time in its history its largest affiliate will be a public sector organisation, Unison superseding the largely private sector unions, the GMB and the Transport and General.

Unison will have a strong vested interest in lobbying for enhanced public expenditure. A future Blair administration will be in the unusual position of controlling state spending at a time when the Labour Party's biggest financial backer is a direct beneficiary of such expenditure through the payment of union subscriptions by public sector employees.

Within the next few weeks senior Unison officials are due to Labour see key members of the Shadow Cabinet to urge that Labour begins to fill a policy void over public sector pay.

The present government has kept the lid on the pay aspirations of public sector workers, but it is a moot point whether that will continue with Labour. There is also the question of the new leader of Unison. Rodney Bickerstaffe, former head of the blue-collar union Nupe, takes over as general secretary in March from Alan Jinkinson.

Mr Bickerstaffe could have a problematic relationship with Mr Blair. The general secretary-elect achieved national notoriety as a senior official of Nupe during the grave diggers' strike in 1979 - the so-called "Winter of Discontent" which brought down the last Labour government.

Since that time, Mr Bickerstaffe has largely kept his political head down. As general secretary of Nupe, he allowed his deputy Tom Sawyer - now general secretary of the party - to shift the union from its left- wing policies.

While privately he argued in favour of Mr Blair's reform of Clause IV of the Labour constitution, he was forced in public to oppose it. At the special conference last April he was accused non-attributably by Mr Blair's aides of making a "bitter little speech".

Mr Bickerstaffe, Unison and the Labour Party have a difficult course to steer.