UK unions warn Cameron over spending cuts

British union leaders warned Prime Minister David Cameron in a meeting on Monday that sharp state spending cuts would divide society and hurt the economy.
Cameron hosted union leaders for talks at his Downing Street residence to try to help defuse tensions ahead of cuts which are expected to result in the loss of around 330,000 public sector jobs and a wage freeze and higher pension contributions for those who keep their posts.
"We made clear to the prime minister our strong view that the spending cuts would both be socially divisive and economically dangerous," Trades Union Congress (TUC) General Secretary Brendan Barber told reporters.
"We urged him to do more to raise money from the banks as a sector that had done the most to take us into the current crisis and which had received enormous help from government," he added.
Cameron heads the centre-right Conservative party, which leads the coalition government with junior partner the Liberal Democrats. The Conservatives curbed union power in the 1980s and some commentators see industrial unrest mushrooming in 2011 as austerity measures bite.
The government is cutting spending by 19% across most departments over the next four years to rein in a budget deficit of more than 10% of national output. Both Barber and the prime minister's spokesman were positive about Monday's meeting.
"It was a good meeting, business-like … industrial action was not the focus of the discussion," the prime minister's spokesman said.
Barber said there had been good discussions on green growth and jobs, manufacturing and equality issues.
Len McCluskey, the newly-elected head of Britain's largest trade union, has raised the prospect of coordinated strikes.
Writing in the online edition of the Guardian newspaper on Sunday, McCluskey, a left-winger, praised recent student demonstrations against tuition fees. Hundreds were arrested when the protests turned violent.
"I would argue there is no case for cuts at all: the austerity frenzy has been whipped up for explicitly ideological reasons — to provide the excuse for what the (Conservatives) would have loved to do anyway," McCluskey wrote.
McCluskey could not get to Monday's meeting with the prime minister because of snow and ice which has disrupted transport.
Opposition Labour leader Ed Miliband, who enjoys strong union backing, distanced himself from McCluskey.
"I think the Conservative-led government is going too far and too fast in its cuts but I think Len McCluskey is wrong," he told reporters. "I think overblown rhetoric about strikes isn't helpful, it won't win public support, it will alienate it."