Ed Miliband to urge unions to pull back from pensions strikes

Labour leader risks angry response in TUC speech from some public sector leaders but will defend historic links with party

The Labour leader Ed Miliband will on Tuesday urge union leaders not to rush into premature strikes over government plans to cut their members' pensions, as he warns unions in the private sector they risk irrelevance unless they can recruit more members.

His remarks in a speech to the TUC annual conference in London will anger some leaders of public sector unions not affiliated to the party, following his disavowal of the strike action they mounted in June.

Miliband knows he faces an acutely difficult political challenge if he disowns strike ballots organised by the main unions affiliated to the party such as Unite and Unison. He is already locked in talks on reforming the union role inside the party, which are due to come to a head next week.

Those big unions are likely to call ballots on industrial action if talks with government fail at the end of next month.

Miliband will defend Labour's historic link with the unions, saying: "Of course, there are times when you and I will disagree. You will speak your mind. And so will I."

He will claim the union party link "is secure enough, mature enough, to deal with disagreement".

His draft speech says: "The relationship between party and unions is not about romance or nostalgia. It is about respect and shared values. It is a relationship in which we listen to each other when we disagree. And we always know that what unites us is greater than what divides us."

He will praise moderate "unions that stand up for their members", including those at car plants who negotiated with management and "made some sacrifices" to secure jobs.

But he will distance himself from the heavy union rhetoric of mass civil resistance against the cuts by saying: "The reality is that, away from the headlines, the new offer you are already making to members is about getting on, not getting even.

"The challenge for unions is this: to recognise that Britain needs to raise its game if we are to meet the challenges of the future and to get private sector employers in the new economy to recognise that you are relevant to that future."

He will remind them that just 15% of the private sector workforce are members of trade unions.

Ahead of his leader's speech, the shadow chancellor, Ed Balls, accused the government of seeking to provoke a strike and praised the responsible approach of Unison general secretary Dave Prentis.

Asked if Labour would support fresh co-ordinated public sector strikes, Balls told the BBC: "We will urge the government to negotiate. Of course, you can never say in advance that there is never a justified strike, that would be ridiculous, but what we have got is a government trying to provoke confrontation.

"I think there will be millions of people, including millions of people who will lose on their pensions, men and women in their 50s, who will say, if I am treated deeply unfairly I am going to act, but that is the wrong way to make these kind of changes in our country."

Miliband's speech will call for a new, more balanced economy and say that Labour would have had to make tough spending decisions if it had returned to government. He will acknowledge that the last government did not spend every penny wisely, and will echo the call by Balls for a plan B to get the economy growing again.

Len McCluskey, the new Unite general secretary, claimed Miliband was trying to break free from the "uber-Blairites" that still existed in his shadow cabinet.

He said: "I don't want him to say that strikes are wrong, I want him to say that he understands. If he can't come out in favour of the strike, he certainly should understand the resentment and the fear that people have."

Miliband's opposition to the June strikes had been had been "100% wrong". He added: "He's taken over a Labour party, he wants to quell the dissidents of his own ranks in the shadow cabinet and in other arenas who are uber-Blairites who are still trying to snap at him, and he has to navigate his way through what is a coalition of ideas, including the trade unions."

On the economy, Miliband will claim Britain is at "a fork in the road". He will say: "Unless we are willing to challenge many of the assumptions on which economic policy has been based for a generation, we will fail the next generation."

He will argue that "financial services are important to Britain and will continue to be so, but unless we broaden our economic base and introduce reforms to tackle irresponsibility of bankers, we will be exposed to crisis as we were in 2007.

"While jobs must be our priority, we must ensure they are decent jobs at decent wages and opportunities are extended to all our young people.

We need to reward entrepreneurship and wealth creation, but if we just shrug our shoulders about inequality ? not just between the top and the bottom, but for the squeezed middle too ? it will cause further problems for both our society and our economy."

H�l�ne Mulholland

Patrick Wintour