Unison members don't want a pat on the head, they want to be told the truth

Dave Prentis

Mr Monks will meet shadow chancellor Michael Howard and work and pensions spokesman David Willetts.

They are to discuss a range of issues including pensions.

That follows a weekend announcement by Liberal Democrat leader Charles Kennedy that he would be holding talks with Mr Monks.

Mr Monks' decision to meet with the Tories came under fire from the leader of the engineering union, the AEEU, Sir Ken Jackson.

Desperate measures?

"Certainly for the 18 years I remember of the Conservative government we never influenced them on anything and it's quite ironic that they weren't prepared to talk to the union movement when they were in government," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Sir Ken criticised the TUC leader for talking to Tories

"They were quite prepared to talk to them when they were in opposition in deep and dire straits in terms of the majority of the Labour Party in the Houses of Parliament."

But while Mr Monks said he understood Sir Ken's scepticism he argued that not all the unions represented by the TUC were Labour-affiliated.

"Our responsibility of course is to seek to influence the government but also to reflect trade union views and concerns to all the mainstream political parties."

He added that the unions had paid a "very big price" between 1979 and 1997 through the Conservatives' lack of understanding of the trade union movement.

The importance of Mr Blair's speech in the eyes of his advisers is such that they have decided not to release advance copies of what he may say.

But Dave Prentis, the boss of the public sector workers union Unison, urged the prime minister to tell public servants how he would deliver on his election pledges.

Mr Blair angered public workers with an earlier speech in which he talked of the "wreckers" who opposed the government's reforms - including a greater role for the private sector.

Valued?

That anger gained added impetus last week amid reports that the government had backtracked on a promise to protect the employment and pension rights of public sector workers contracted out to the private sector.

Mr Prentis said: "Unison members don't want a pat on the head, they want to be told the truth and that what is pledged in public will be carried out by ministers and civil servants in private.

Mr Blair's speech was to an invited audience at an event organised by the Labour Party.

Guests are expected to include representatives from think-tanks and academics.