The Socialist Alliance will hold a pre-election public meeting to discuss Labour's treatment of the trade unions.

Today's meeting (Tuesday) at Temple Cowley School will be headed by Mark Serwotka, General Secretary-elect of Britain's main civil service union, the PCS.

The Socialist Alliance claim that trade unionists are increasingly disillusioned with Tony Blair's Labour party and that events during recent weeks have brought about fierce debate.

They claim that the UK's biggest union, Unison, is withholding £250,000 of its contribution to Labour's election funds over concerns about government policy on private financing and privatisation of public services.

The Socialist Alliance also claims that the Labour Party has accepted a donation from private parcels company UPS while postal workers have taken action to protest against privatisation.

Socialist Alliance candidate for Oxford East, John Lister, said: "It is now blindingly obvious that New Labour's second term agenda is privatisation, privatisation, and more privatisation."

"All those wanting to defend publicly owned services should vote for the party that fights privatisation - the Socialist Alliance."

The meeting will begin at 7.30pm.