Possible mass strikes by public sector workers in the UK in protest at looming government cuts will be high on the agenda when trade unions gather for their annual congress tomorrow.
The Trades Union Congress is meeting for the first time since Conservative David Cameron's coalition government took power in May.
The conference, in Manchester, will generate particular controversy this year because the government is pushing through major cuts to tackle the UK's record deficit.
Some 600,000 public sector jobs could eventually be cut and ministers have warned government departments to prepare reductions of up to 40%.
Ministers will give full details on how they intend to reduce borrowing - forecast to hit €180bn in the year to March 2011 - in a spending review on 20 October.
The situation threatens a return to the tensions of the 1970s and 1980s when Margaret Thatcher drew intense hostility from unions as they staged a wave of strikes against a backdrop of her free market reforms.
Britain's trade unions are major donors to the opposition Labour party, which elects a new leader on 25 September, and have a history of clashing with the Conservatives.
Brendan Barber, general secretary of the TUC, the trade union umbrella group, has warned of ‘difficult disputes’ ahead as unions representing public sector and private sector workers resist the cuts.
‘We have a pretty volatile cocktail of issues, such as the public sector pay freeze, threats of further privatisation, re-structuring of public services and major worries about security of pensions,’ Mr Barber said ahead of the event.
A rally and lobby of parliament is already planned for 19 October, the day before the spending review, and many unions are urging British support for a Europe-wide day of action against state austerity measures on 29 September.
Thousands of activists are expected at the TUC from Monday to Thursday when the trade union movement's plans for the coming year are decided.
The agenda contains a string of motions condemning the government's budgetary plans and urging action.
Around seven million people in Britain belong to a trade union, under a quarter of the total workforce of 29 million.
If they do go on strike, they could struggle to get much support from the British public or limit the cuts, experts say.
Defending the government's decisions in a speech last week, Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, of the Liberal Democrats, accepted that they would prove ‘difficult, painful or unpopular’.
‘I am under no illusions about the significant political risks both parties in the coalition are now taking by facing up to these difficult decisions in government,’ he said.
But Mr Clegg stressed the cuts would not begin until next April and would happen over four years.
24-hour Tube strike hit London commuters
Last Tuesday a strike over planned job cuts by rail workers caused major disruption to commuters on London's Underground services.
The walk-out was over plans to cut 800 jobs from the workforce of 19,000.
The Rail Maritime and Transport union said every London Underground line ran a skeleton service.
On a normal weekday, passengers make about 3.5m journeys on the Underground.
Commuters were forced to join long queues for crowded bus and boat services, as all of the network's 11 lines were either suspended or badly disrupted.
