The Trades Union Congress in Blackpool: Campaign for full employment

The TUC launched a campaign to restore full employment and proposed a pounds 2bn increase in public spending to create nearly 120,000 jobs.

Norman Willis, TUC general secretary, accused the Government of using unemployment as an 'incomes policy'.

An NOP poll commissioned by the TUC showed that 90 per cent of voters believed the low-paid should continue to enjoy legal protection. Rodney Bickerstaffe, leader of the public service union Nupe and president of the TUC, said the Government's plan to abolish 26 wages councils, which set minimum pay, was a crude device for reducing their wages.