The government is determined not to seem like the aggressor in the coming dispute with
the unions. It wants to stress that it is being reasonable and David Cameron’s speech today to the Local Government Association will be a classic example of this strategy.
At the same time, it is trying to put in place contingency plans so the country can carry on regardless of industrial action. Those close to the coalition’s negotiating team point to how a well developed plan to use the army in place of striking prison officers deterred the Prison Officers Association from taking industrial action over the ‘privatisation’ of a prison.
The question is whether the government will need to move onto the offensive if Thursday’s strikes presages an autumn of industrial action. Some ministers believe that the government needs to be doing a lot more to make the case against the unions and wants them to start doing so far more aggressively.
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