New Labour's last-minute climbdown over local government and civil service pensions which averted the threat of strike action by 1.5 million public sector workers was just a short term retreat, according to Peter Hain.
In an interview with the Financial Times on April 1 Hain, as Blair's leader of the House of Commons, made it clear that if the government is returned to a record third term of office it will immediately get to work forcing through a wide-ranging package of "reforming" legislation including pensions.
And since Blair has already announced that he will not run for a fourth term, he would be free to promote an even more unpopular agenda, with no fear of facing the anger of voters.
Hain's frank statement will confirm the concerns of many union activists that the lastditch concessions that were made to persuade public sector union leaders to call off strikes scheduled for March 23 were simply a cosmetic Paul McGowan Tony Blair wants civil servants to work five more years for a full pension, by increasing their retirement age from 60 to 65. Mis-selling a public sector pensions policy: Peter Hain exercise to stavesoff the confrontation until after the election.
Blair has personally stepped in to force Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott to withdraw a parliamentary order that would have increased the retirement age for local government staff from 60-65, and to compel workers.
Civil servants would have solidly supported a strike on March 23 against the government's pension plans (without Pensions Minister Alan Johnson to offer fresh talks to the civil service unions over plans for similar increases in retirement age.
Until Blair's intervention neither minister had given any hint of willingness to compromise or negotiate.
Hain makes it clear that Blair is still hell-bent on forcThe stakes ing public sector workers to foot the bill for the shortfall in funding of their pension rights, which have traditionally been viewed as compensation for relatively poor basic rates of pay, and for high-pressure jobs which lead to high levels of stress and early retirements through illSignificantly Hain has not been reprimanded removed as a result of his revelations, which could be seen as just as embarrassing the New Labour as Howard Flight's revelations of secret Tory plans for public sector cuts.
He assured the FT and its big business readers that "major legislation" would be brought before parliament "sooner rather than later" to exploit a fresh mandate and combat fears of a future funding crisis on public sector pensions.
Blair is plainly saving these schemes until after the votes are counted, and was determined to defuse the confrontation with the unions just weeks before the expected to even ask the government for more than talks before its decision.
Most civil servants are sceptical that the government will polling day of May 5.
And since the union leaders had sought only to force a reopening of talks on pensions rather than any explicit guarantee that the value of existing pension rights will not be cut back, the postponement of the attack was sufficient to buy a cancellation of the strikes, which UNISON's newly re-elected General Secretary Dave Prentis had promised would be bigger than the 1926 General Strike.
He and T&G deputy general secretary Jack Dromey were quick to claim that there would now be "real negotiations" with ministers, with Dromey claiming that they would ensure "security and dignity in retirement for the nation's public servants". But the unions' negotiating position will be far weaker after the election than it was six weeks before one.
Other sections of public sector workers, including NHS staff and teachers had been closely watching the battle, noting that local government workers had been selected to face the pension union members to wrongly believe the PCS is affiliated to Labour (as this could explain their leaders' unwillingness to rock the boat).