Strike summit denounces government 'seeking to fight with unions' to hide economic failures

The Mirror held a union bosses summit at our headquarters tonight to answer questions from readers as thousands of workers prepare to head off to the coming weeks

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The union leader of the Royal College of Nursing explains why he is going on strike

The government is ‘fighting with the unions’ to try to hide its own economic failures, a Daily Mirror summit heard.

Frances O'Grady, general secretary of the TUC, has claimed the Tories are opposing workers' wage demands because they have 'messed up'.

She said at the top of the Mirror strike: 'I strongly suspect that if you wanted to destroy our NHS, our education system, our public services, that's the right way to go.'

She claimed that, in some cases, the government has actively blocked the conclusion of wage agreements.

"They don't want us to talk about the root cause of this," she continued.

Alison Phillips and Kevin Maguire of the Mirror with Union bosses (

Picture:

Ian Vogler/Daily Mirror)

"They don't want us to talk about the mess they've caused to the economy.

"They've messed up a lot and they're fighting with us to distract from the fact that they're useless."

Sharon Graham, general secretary of the Unite union, agreed, saying: "It has to be deliberate."

Both were among the seven most powerful trade unionists in Britain who gathered for the summit to discuss the reasons for the biggest wave of industrial action since the late 1980s.

This marked the start of a major escalation in strikes, with rail services brought to a virtual standstill by the start of another 48-hour shutdown by members of the RMT union.