Labour faces new strike threat

Tanker drivers yesterday threatened to go on strike, adding to the grim prospect of a "summer of discontent" already threatened by 1.4 million striking public sector workers.

Supplies of petrol to Shell stations were threatened after drivers in the Transport and General Workers Union backed industrial action by 269 votes to 65, in protest at a 2.5 per cent pay offer. The drivers, who are employed by P&O Trans European, are seeking a wage rise of 8 per cent.

It follows the threatened strike by public sector employees, from school caretakers to social workers, who are due to stage a 24-hour walkout on 17 July in support of their 6 per cent pay claim.

Firemen are also threatening industrial action over a 40 per cent pay claim to bring their pay up to £30,000.

Local authorities – who are offering a 3 per cent rise – say they cannot afford the unions' demands without cutting services, leaving the Government facing the worst threat of industrial action since the "winter of discontent" in 1979 when Labour was thrown out of office.

Tony Blair yesterday urged the unions and the employers to reach a settlement. "I know there are discussions taking place with the employers at the moment, and I hope they are successful," he said.

But the Prime Minister warned that the dispute over pay would not deflect the Government from its plans to take on the "vested interests" in public services to deliver radical reforms.

"We will be taking on all sorts of vested interests within those public services, all sorts of people who for reasons – some well motivated, some not so well motivated – will be holding back the process of change," Mr Blair said.

It was necessary, he added, to realise that the public was no longer prepared to accept the "basic" level of service provision which they had in the immediate post-war era.

"They don't want any old public service. They want a quality public service. They want a public service for 21st-century consumers."

His remarks infuriated trade union leaders. John Edmonds, leader of the GMB union, said: "The Government's industrial strategy is unravelling before its eyes. No doubt we will hear more over the next few weeks about vested interests and trade union wreckers but the reality is this is a crisis made in Downing Street."

Mr Blair's uncompromising stand is likely to lead to greater tensions with the unions in the run-up to the TUC conference in September, which he is address.