Labour's biggest union backers delivered blistering attacks on the Government today, raising the stakes over public sector pay.

Delegates from Unite and Unison, which together provided a quarter of Labour¹s funding last year, highlighted the deep divide between the unions and the party over pay in the public services as the TUC voted to step up action.

Joyce Still, of Unite, said that the Government's action to limit pay increases to around two per cent was "a betrayal of the faith and trust in the Labour government". Keith Sonnet, deputy general secretary of Unison, said that nurses, teachers, cleaners and other public servants "deserve better than the shabby treatment they are getting from a government that appears to listen more to the voices of their fair weather friends in business and the CBI than it does to those of its core supporters.

The TUC backed a pledge to co-ordinate campaigning across the public services for higher pay. The move came after several unions, including PCS, the civil service union, the National Union of Teachers and Unison raised the prospect of concerted industrial action in the winter.

The TUC's motion said that the unions believe that "attempts to restrict public sector pay awards at levels below the rate of inflation are unfair, based on questionable assumptions, and must be revised urgently". It said that the pay restraint would erode standards in public services.

Sally Hunt, general secretary of the University and College Union, complained that money could be found to bail out banks but not for public service pay. She told delegates that public servants couldn't be blamed for their pay-threatening inflationadding: "The problem is not with the people affected by the decisions, the problem is with people making the decisions."

Christine Blower, acting general secretary of the NUT, said the union would be very happy to co-ordinate strike action with other unions. Brian Caton, general secretary of the Prison Officers Association, said it was important to hurt the Government to get it to listen.

The POA had tabled an amendment calling for national strikes to be co-ordinated by the TUC. This was defeated, although unions representing nearly 1.4 million members backed the call.

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