Ed Miliband was booed by union members today as he used his first TUC speech as Labour leader to accuse them of making "a mistake" by striking over pensions.
There were cries of "shame" from the floor at the criticism and isolated heckling later when he defended academy schools introduced by the last Labour government.
He warned that a future Labour government could not reverse all of the Coalition spending cuts. "We committed ourselves to halving the deficit," he said. "That would mean cuts."
Despite suspicions that Labour's leader is trying to distance himself from the unions a year after he secured the leadership with their backing, the 15-minute speech was mainly greeted with applause that ranged from polite to warm.
The strongest reaction came when he criticised public sector unions who went on strike last June over pension reforms. "While negotiations were going on, I believe it was a mistake for strikes to happen," he said. As shouts of protest went up, he said: "I continue to believe that."
The PCS union has announced another one-day strike next month while others are balloting for action.
Mr Miliband is known to have wanted to move away from the annual clash with the TUC that Labour leaders have used to burnish their reputation for toughness. However, he refused a teaching union representative's demand that he condemn academies, saying: "What you need is academies, free schools and other schools working much better together."
As booing broke out he said: "I'm sorry people shout 'shame' but they made a big difference for kids in my constituency."
Mr Miliband told his audience strikes were "always the consequence of failure" and the nation could not afford them. However, he praised union campaigns to save jobs.
RMT leader Bob Crow said earlier that unions would co-ordinate future strikes to make them more effective.
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