Unions expect joint strikes over spending cuts

Reuters) - Large scale strikes against the British coalition government's plans to slash public spending are inevitable, a trade union leader said on Sunday, as unions began forging alliances to increase their influence.

The government plans to reduce spending in most departments by a quarter as it tackles a budget deficit totalling 11 percent of national output, and the issue of how best to thwart the cuts is set to dominate the Trades Union Congress (TUC) this week.

Although unions are focussing first on a campaign to exert political pressure by mobilising public opposition to the cuts, Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union, said he expected industrial action would follow and should be coordinated.

"I think industrial action is inevitable on a large scale unless the government changes direction," he told reporters on the eve of the congress in Manchester.

"What we want is coordinated industrial action between those who are affected ... because you will have a better chance of defending yourself than if you try to do it on your own."

Serwotka's civil service union has already taken steps to coordinate its work with others, last week announcing an alliance with Unison, Britain's biggest public sector union, as well as approaching other unions about similar partnerships.

While unions often work together in lobbying government, coordinated industrial action is relatively rare, hampered by the fact that secondary strikes do not have legal protection.

But unions fighting the government's cuts will be able to hold simultaneous action if they are disputing the same changes.

Serwotka, who cited the example of unions coordinating to successfully influence planned changes to public sector pensions in 2005, said the agreement with Unison would be signed this week and would involve sharing resources and working together at every level of the organisation.

"The penny has dropped with everyone that the situation is so desperate that unless we work together in a meaningful way, that actually the future looks very, very bleak," he said.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) also predicted trade unions would take action together, saying they must join forces to avoid being picked off one at a time by the government.

He also called for a campaign of "civil disobedience" to resist the austerity measures.

But Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, a union umbrella group which represents 6.5 million workers, said the public had not yet woken up to the scale of the cuts.

"When the reality of these cuts actually begins to emerge ... then I think that will produce a very, very different reaction," he said.

Going to be an interesting winter...