Pay for promises Labour is told

HIGHER education's biggest trade union Unison has questioned the Government's ability to deliver more and better further education and training.

Rodney Bickerstaffe, general secretary of Unison, which has some 50,000 members in higher education and up to 30,000 in the further education sector, said that the Government's intention to stick to existing Conservative spending plans offered little or no scope for realising Tony Blair's famous education, education and education pledge.

Mr Bickerstaffe said: "I do not see how the circle is going to be squared if we stick rigidly to the present funding mechanism. We want to see further education developed and unless something is done about it then all that talk about education, education and education and lifelong learning will be as nought."

Mr Bickerstaffe was speaking at the union's annual conference in Brighton on Monday. As head of Britain's largest union, with some 1.3 million members, he said he was keen to strike a balance between defending and promoting members interests and opening constructive dialogue with the Government. A key issue is a national minimum wage.

Mr Bickerstaffe said: "The minimum wage is not going to go away even if people want it to. But it is highly unlikely that the trade unions are going to blow the Government out of the water over the minimum wage. We will try to get our voice heard."

Unison is strongly opposed to transferring money from higher education to further education, a move that may be advocated by Sir Ron Dearing when he delivers his report next month.

The union will campaign for the repeal of Conservative anti-trade union legislation, along with the rest of the trade union movement, but Mr Bickerstaffe said that this would not happen overnight. He avoided a direct answer to the question of supporting illegal industrial action in defence of jobs, saying that Unison members were responsible and would not go down that route.

At the same time delegates to Unison's higher education service group conference, which was also held on Monday, called on the union to give higher education a higher priority in campaigning. This followed severe criticism of the levels of support given by the national union to members who joined the successful joint-union one-day strike held last November 19. The service group executive was ordered to conduct a review of strike policy and support.

A motion was also passed calling for a single national agreement on pay and conditions for both old and new universities. Another motion called on universities to harmonise strike pay deductions amid evidence that these varied considerably between institutions.