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RMT signallers and anti-democratic laws
The news that Network Rail are to challenge the RMT strike ballot, due to be carried out during the rush hours of April 6th – 9th, should surprise absolutely nobody. Yet again, the law is being used by employers to prevent staff from going on strike, regardless of whether or not the majority of workers involved support the strike being used.
In this case, 54% of RMT workers backed the call to strike, 77% backed action short of a strike. Bearing in mind that the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) are to come out on strike at the same time, and that the strike as announced will probably overlap with the next round of British Airways Cabin Crew strikes, the choice to strike is the right one.
Network Rail’s press statement declared their “responsibility to all our passengers and freight users, and to the country as a whole, to do everything we can to avert a strike. Talks continue and our aim is a negotiated settlement, but we must explore all avenues at our disposal and that includes legal ones.”
This is pretty telling; for Network Rail, the legal challenge has got nothing to do with the validity of the strike ballot, it’s simply a way of stopping the strike. As I mentioned in a previous article, this is becoming a feature of every single strike – regardless of whether or not the strike is clearly supported by a majority, employers challenge it in the courts.
Short of a judge ordering a re-ballot, I’ll be down on the picket lines come next week. RMT and TSSA members have been strong supporters of Unite’s recent battle on behalf of the BA cabin crews. The RMT regularly backs left campaigns like Youth Fight for Jobs, and is key to setting up socialist platforms across the country for this election. They deserve our support, because a defeat for one union represents a dangerous signal to all employers.
PCS Budget Day strike report
David Miliband passes London pickets...
Yesterday a planned strike by the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS) was carried out, with 200,000 staff mostly staying at home rather than come into work. I was down on the picket line here in Canterbury to offer support for the local Job Centre staff who came out, in protest at cuts across the board – to regular staff, temps, pensions etc.
Compared with last time, the picket was poorly attended – but still people were being signed up to the PCS by militant workers. I heard that this has been replicated elsewhere in Kent, with nearly a dozen signed up in areas around the east of the county during and in the lead up to yesterday’s strike alone. Clearly these issues resonate amongst DWP staff.
News from Leeds yesterday was that some 1700 people have joined the union since the industrial dispute began.
Active pickets tend to do very well at this, pulling out more workers who may ordinarily have just ducked their heads and gone inside and persuading members of other unions not to deliver services to the workplaces in question.
Given the number of workplaces without pickets, PCS’ national executive needs to take in hand a programme that will deliver elected representatives in every workplace who are schooled and willing to organise such pickets when the members vote to strike. Such representatives are useful points of contact around which can be built support networks that reassure striking workers that they do have a great deal of general support.
It would certainly help the DWP and HMRC staff who often seem to be the backbone of any dispute. It would also solidify strikes right along the line. Evidently, for all the ‘union modernisation’ money that our right-wing counterparts are complaining about, little of the state’s money has been used to strengthen the basic sinews of unions.
Today, the PCS national executive is meeting to discuss what further action to take. ‘Targeted action’ seems to be the expectation of PCS members, that the union will ask the Contact Centres to come out on strike rather than generalising the action. It’s hard to see what effect this can have other than to fatigue workers.
The strikes have held up well, to the point where management from regional centres were sent to outlying offices to cover for staff who were on strike. The Guardian reports that crown and county courts have been massively affected, as well as certain museums throughout London, and several job centres that I’ve seen have been clearly affected.
Against this, however, we have to measure the willingness of the government to simply wait out the strike.
We can’t take seriously Tessa Jowell’s Comical Ali routine, of the sort wheeled out every time there is a strike: “Across the country services to the public are largely unaffected – all job centres and benefits offices are open, border entry points are working normally and court services are being maintained.”
Yet it would be a mistake to underestimate the government. Now, with the first planned national rail strike since the mid-1990s and several other unions involved or considering serious industrial action, it could be time to consider an organised series of national days of actions, bringing out all services on their separate grievances.
Should this be done before or after May 6th? I have no real opinion; either way, the unions and their workers are going to get a hammering from the government – red or blue. If steps aren’t taken to hook up different union grievances, the government – 0f whatever party – faces being able to ride them all out, one by one, as fatigue sets in.
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