VZCZCXRO2463
RR RUEHAG RUEHBC RUEHDA RUEHDE RUEHDF RUEHIHL RUEHIK RUEHKUK RUEHLZ
DE RUEHLO #6324/01 2421708
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 301708Z AUG 06
FM AMEMBASSY LONDON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8646
INFO RUCNMEM/EU MEMBER STATES COLLECTIVE
RUCNRAQ/IRAQ COLLECTIVE
RUCNMEC/MIDES COLLECTIVE
RUEHSF/AMEMBASSY SOFIA 0289
RUEHBM/AMEMBASSY BUCHAREST 0386
RUEHED/AMCONSUL EDINBURGH 0603
RUEHBL/AMCONSUL BELFAST 0604

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 LONDON 006324 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ELAB PGOV PREL UK
SUBJECT: UK TRADE UNIONS CONFERENCE WILL OFFER SNEAK 
PREVIEW OF PARTY GATHERING 
 
 
LONDON 00006324  001.2 OF 002 
 
 
SENSITIVE BUT UNCLASSIFIED; NOT FOR INTERNET. 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Delegates to the upcoming TUC Conference 
will greet PM Blair with the question "When are you 
leaving?", Trades Union Congress (TUC) International 
Relations Department Head Owen Tudor told Lab Couns and ECON 
Asst Aug 30.  The TUC will also debate recent moves to 
privatize parts of the National Health Service (NHS).   On 
international issues, they will stress solidarity with Iraqi 
and Kurdish trade unions, denounce Israel's foray into 
Lebanon and push for continued free movement of labor within 
the EU, including Romania and Bulgaria, when they join. 
Tudor noted with regret that elements of the TUC have drifted 
left and suggested the US had moved right, resulting in a 
greater than ever gap between UK unions and the US.   END 
SUMMARY 
 
A FORETASTE FOR DOMESTIC POLITICS 
 
¶2.  (SBU) The annual TUC conference, September 11 to 14 in 
Brighton this year, relishes its role as the "rehearsal" for 
the Labour Party Conference a few weeks later, Tudor said. 
The trade unionists get first crack at the Prime Minister and 
will focus on the same internal issues that will grip the 
politicians in Manchester:  when will PM Blair leave, and 
what will the next Labour leadership look like.  Tudor said 
the first question Blair will be asked in the Q and A after 
his speech will be "When are you leaving?".  Realistically, 
however, the unionists know these issues will only be 
discussed, not decided, at their gathering. 
 
¶3.  (SBU) The biggest domestic issue on the agenda will be 
government's efforts to privatize parts of the National 
Health Service.  (The government has proposed privatizing the 
NHS Logistics service, for example.)  Also, a recent bid by 
US healthcare giant UnitedHealth Group to provide medical 
professionals to the NHS has raised concerns of some 
consumers and trade unionists.  "Do we really want to follow 
the American model of health care?" Tudor asked. 
 
SOLIDARITY WITH IRAQ; SUPPORT FOR IMMIGRANT LABORERS 
 
¶4.  (SBU) The conference's international agenda will try to 
stay reasonably close to the Labour government's.  Foreign 
Secretary Margaret Beckett will address the conference the 
 
SIPDIS 
morning of Sep 13 and international issues will be debated 
that afternoon.  War horse issues like Cuba will offer no 
surprises, Tudor said, but he and the leadership will try to 
rein in the membership on Iraq.  The TUC (like the AFL-CIO) 
maintains close ties to the Iraqi trade union movement and 
tries not to undercut them by calling for a military pullout 
from Iraq.  Kurdish trade unionists are treated as a distinct 
movement, both by the TUC and their Iraqi counterparts, Tudor 
said.  The TUC does not try to draw any conclusions from that 
distinction, however.  On Lebanon, the TUC is likely to 
criticize Israel, although Tudor admits there is more passion 
than logic to their views on this issue.  He argued that even 
traditionally pro-Israel voices in the UK did not approve of 
the Israel incursion and so a strong statement was inevitable. 
 
¶5.  (SBU) The prospect of Romanian and Bulgarian workers 
streaming into the UK when they accede to the EU, as did the 
Poles and others before them, is less of an issue for the TUC 
leadership than for the rank and file, Tudor explained.  The 
TUC has always been "purer than pure" on labor mobility, he 
said.  It should be allowed to occur as freely as capital and 
goods move.  He questions analyses by the Bank of England and 
others that migrants from Eastern Europe have depressed wages 
in the UK, saying there is little statistical evidence to 
back it up.  Free movement of labor, however, should be 
matched with strong labor protection laws, as Ireland has 
done, he said.  The problem will be to convince the rank and 
file, who are reading the "bad analyses" in the UK press. 
 
US-UK RELATIONS SHOULD MEND 
 
¶6.  (SBU) Tudor, a recent IV-grantee, welcomed outreach from 
the US Embassy and regretted that the UK labor movement had 
turned away from the USG and the US generally in recent 
years.  He blamed a discontinuity between labor's post war 
leaders, who favored strong ties to the US, and their 
successors, who did not understand the strength of that 
tradition.  The pull towards Europe and the impact of 
globalization had also caused many in the movement to turn 
 
LONDON 00006324  002.2 OF 002 
 
 
away from the US.  He hoped it would prove to be a temporary 
rough patch and that strong US-UK ties would again become the 
norm. 
 
Visit London's Classified Website: 
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/eur/london/index. cfm 
Johnson