BRIGHTON, England—Britain's ruling Labour party must stop infighting and do more to ease the economic downturn, union leaders said on Sunday, threatening further strikes this year over public sector pay.
Prime Minister Gordon Brown has faced calls from within his party to step down as the government loses favour with voters worried about slumping house prices, higher living costs and rising unemployment.
Unions, who have provided about three-quarters of the Labour Party's funding this year, fear that disunity and a lack of decisive action on the economy, especially public sector pay, will result in defeat at the next election due by mid-2010.
"If there is an impression of squabbling in the highest ranks of the Labour government. I don't think that would impress too many ordinary people who are worried about their jobs and living standards," Brendan Barber, head of the Trades Union Congress told reporters ahead of its annual conference in the seaside town of Brighton.
Workers have become increasingly militant over Labour's policy of pegging public sector pay rises to the official 2 percent inflation target, with more than a million workers taking industrial action in the past year.
Britain's inflation rate is running at 4.4 percent and is expected to jump towards 5 percent in the coming months thanks to sharp increases in food and fuel prices.
The Public and Commercial Services Union said on Sunday it would ballot 270,000 civil service staff to strike over pay from November. The biggest teachers union is balloting members and other government workers could also strike this winter over pay.
Unions are also concerned that a divisive leadership debate will have dire consequences as the political party conference season that could decide Labour's fate gets underway.
Most unionists want to keep the focus on the economy, which many fear is about to enter its first recession since the early 1990s.
The TUC unveiled proposals on Sunday to raise cash from the wealthy to help fund tax cuts and spending that would help the poor, suggesting minimum tax rates on those earning more than 100,000 pounds a year.
Unions also want a windfall tax on energy companies who have made bumper profits on higher oil prices and a cap on the prices utility companies charge households for energy.
Finance minister Alistair Darling will address the TUC on Tuesday. Opposition Conservative leader David Cameron and the head of Britain's third-biggest political party, the Liberal Democrats, both pledged on Sunday to cut income tax if they got into power.
