LUL Trains: Enough "Mañana Militancy"

Image from Spanish Says YouTube channel

LUL drivers face the biggest attack on our terms and conditions in a generation. The company's compressed-working-week scheme will lead to longer shifts, more flexibility for the bosses in terms of changing times and locations, less flexibility for us in terms of moving depots, and potential reductions in headcount.

Yes, we'll get an extra rest day per week out of it, but LUL's own Equality Impact Assessment admits that, for many, the extra day off will simply serve to offset the harms caused by the restructure.

Over two months ago, LUL asked for a "7-10 week pause" in our industrial action, in order to provide more answers to RMT questions. We said at the time that a pause would only benefit the bosses, and that we should follow up on our June strikes by escalating action.

Those 10 weeks have passed. Many questions remain unanswered. In the meantime, we've re-balloted, and secured another thumping majority for strikes. RMT reps met again on 22 August, and decided to give the bosses a further seven days to come up with answers. Predictably, they didn't, instead proposing a schedule of talks concluding on 20 October. Surely, after being fobbed off multiple times, and with a fresh mandate, it would be time for action?

Alas, no.

From the union's update to members: "Unless assurances on the outstanding matters are received by 20th October then this union will have no option but to notify LUL of strike action."

It's an example of a syndrome that crops up in many union contexts, which Tubeworker has named "Mañana Militancy." We're always keeping our powder dry for some big fight that's just around the corner... except when we get there, some new reason is always found to postpone yet again. And in the meantime, management continues its action, its escalations, its provocations; members' morale decreases, the sense that we can actually stop the employer fades, and before you know it, the fight is lost.

We have to break the cycle.

The reason given by advocates of Mañana Militancy is usually that "the members aren't up for it at the moment", as if what "the members" are "up for" is a fixed quantity that can't be altered through discussion, persuasion, campaigning. Arguments have also been made that we should only strike once the company does something particularly outrageous, such as withdrawing its commitment to "voluntary" implementation. The problem with that is, once the outrageous act has been announced, it's invariably too late to stop it.

The resolve to launch sustained action of the type that might stand a chance of forcing the company back can't be conjured out of nowhere. But it definitely can't be built on the basis of continually pulling our punches, giving the company more time, and trying to leverage threats that one day... one day soon... we're really going to hit them hard.