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Mass walkouts over public sector pensions reform will allow chancellor to blame weak recovery on them, warns Balls Ed Balls has warned trade unions not to fall into George Osborne’s “trap” by striking over plans to reform public sector pensions. The chancellor was hoping for the unions to embark on industrial action , Balls said, so that he could blame any weak economic recovery on mass walkouts. The government and unions have been at loggerheads since unions felt ministers pre-empted negotiations by going public towards the end of last week with plans to extend the retirement age and increase pension contributions for millions of public sector workers. On Sunday, Unison leader Dave Prentis, whose union represents 1.4 million state employees, said the government had “scuppered” the talks by appearing unwilling to compromise. Prentis and other union leaders had threatened the biggest wave of industrial action since the general strike of 1926 after the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, made the announcement on Friday. The Treasury later said that Alexander was articulating proposals for reform, not settled government policy, but Prentis said that Alexander’s speech had effectively rendered the talks meaningless. Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show , Balls said the government was deliberately “picking a fight” with the unions. “This is not a political decision from the unions, this is actually their members feeling very upset. George Osborne is desperate to have that confrontation – he’s been saying it for months. The trade unions must not walk into the trap of giving George Osborne the confrontation he wants to divert attention from a failing economy. “That’s why it’s so frustrating to see suddenly the Treasury breaking out of the negotiations and seeming to say, ‘We’ve made decisions.’” Three unions are due to strike on 30 June, but the Association of Teachers and Lecturers has said it will call off the walkout if the government is willing to discuss the level of increases to pension contributions. Mark Serwotka of the Public and Commercial Services Union , which represents almost 300,000 civil servants, told the BBC it was very unlikely that the walkout would be called off. Responding to Balls’s warning of a “trap”, Serwotka said: “The problem with what Ed is saying is this: if he’s me, representing people, many of whom are on £15,000 per year – they work hard, they’re on poverty pay, they don’t look forward to a very big pension. If all of that’s being taken away and you work longer, pay more and get less, what frankly are we supposed to do? Are we supposed to sit back, say it’s unfair and do nothing?” Prentis, whose union represents people working for local authorities, the NHS, colleges and the police, said he had not yet balloted his members on action but would if they continued “to be treated with disdain”. “If we go back into negotiations on the basis of dialogue but no changes in the proposals, what’s the point in that?” he told the BBC. “If we can get an assurance that the talks are meaningful … then obviously we’d continue the talks, but we didn’t get that impression on Friday.” “And it will be the biggest action since 1926 because up to 10 million people will be involved.” Responding to the same suggestion by Balls, Prentis said striking methods would be “smarter”. He told Sky’s Murnaghan programme, “It won’t be like the miners’ dispute where we will be starved back into submission. This will be a lot smarter than that – this will be about regional action, branch action, this will be sustained action. Because I believe that this government will not turn after one or two days, and our members have got to be prepared for that, and I believe that they are.” Alexander said the government was “absolutely not” trying to provoke a battle with unions. “There is a huge amount of room for dialogue,” he told Sky News. “There is a huge amount of detail about public sector pensions that we’ve been discussing in the talks … and we need to take that forward over the coming months.” He insisted the talks could still be constructive, adding: “I don’t think my message is uncompromising at all.” John Cridland, director of employers’ group the CBI, dismissed the impact that public sector union strikes could have on the economy. He said: “Today the most they can do is disrupt people’s lives – it probably won’t disrupt the economy.” Public sector pensions Ed Balls Public sector pay Public sector cuts Public services policy Public finance George Osborne Allegra Stratton guardian.co.uk