All Out for a Better Deal!

Submitted by AWL on 23 June, 2004 - 10:19

Tubeworker of June 2004 puts the case for strike action, urging unity, and pointing to a way forward. Workplace reports include victories for the unions on sick certificates and a depot canteen.

You can read and download it here, and/or read the text of the front page article below.

Well done to the RMT executive - it has put the strike action back on following the failure of talks with LUL and Network Rail management concerning this year's pay and conditions claim. The offer for LUL operational staff is a 3% pay rise followed by a further 0.5% in October in return for future 'flexibility and a new approach to rostering'. LUL has also promised to implement a 36 hour working week as soon as possible which on past experience could be as far as 3 years away.

Why Strike?

This falls miles short of the union's claim: a 32-hour, 4-day week, a substantial pay rise for all staff, basic wage for an SA to be raised to £22,000, and equalisation of priv travel facilities.

As the saying goes, it has more strings than the London Philharmonic. Of course, we could consider later finishes, earlier starts and special events - if management made it worth our while by agreeing to the 4-day week. But other strings, such as job cuts or reduced sick pay, are out of the question for Tube workers.

Arguments against this strike will come thick and fast from the media. But more and more Tube workers are realising that the only reason we have relatively good wages and conditions is because we have taken industrial action in the past.

Without that, our year-on-year pay rises would have barely kept pace with inflation, and our conditions would have come under even further attack from a layer of narrow-minded LUL management whose biggest achievement woud be to slash the wages bill for the company.

Unity Is Strength

We have all heard rumours about the possibility of hundreds of job cuts planned on the Underground, and ticket office staff are staring right down the barrel of a gun at the moment.

If you are a driver, don't think that station job cuts won't affect you. With fewer station staff, who is going to help you with detrainments, or violent incidents, or one-unders? And when they have finished decimating the station staff, who do you think they will come for next? Don't forget that Bombardier reckons that it can bring in driverless trains.

All the more reason to stand united now. If LUL detects division between grades, or weakness in the membership, it will not hesitate in pushing ahead with cost cutting, casualisation, and watering down of health and safety rules.

It is essential that we all remember the golden rule of trade unonism: you never cross a picket line. We have been at our strongest when people have upheld this.

Meaningful Discussions?

This lousy offer is the result of the 'meaningful' discussions Livingstone promised once RMT head office had suspended the 10 June strike. It comes nowhere near meeting the union's claim. Which begs the questions: Why are ASLEF and TSSA not putting up a fight? And why did RMT suspend the action without anything tangible on the table?

The feeling among RMT members is that Bob Crow did Ken a big favour by suspending the strike, but in return we have gained nothing, whilst having the momentum knocked out of the dispute. Other unions' members are frustrated that their leaders have yet again failed to stand up for them.

Now it is again the job of the reps and activists to convince the doubters to take strike action following this surrender by ASLEF and TSSA and woeful tactical failure by the RMT executive.

But we were right to push for this action in the first place, and we must now work as hard as possible to get as many workers not just out on strike but out on the picket lines. This could be a very effective strike: combined with the dispute on Network Rail, this has the potential to cause maximum disruption around the country.

Rank-And-file Control

This is your dispute about your pay and conditions. Take part in it, and also take control of it. The running of the strike should be devolved to strike committees run by workers and not by bureaucrats.

Many RMT branches meet on the day after the strike - an ideal opportunity to assess the action and decide what we think should be done next. Representatives from the various branches should then get together, agree a strategy, and pressurise the Executive to follow the wishes of the rank-and-file. And we should welcome the involvement of members of other unions who want to be part of this fight.

So all out on Tuesday/Wednesday.

Let's show them that we mean business. Everyone must respect picket lines and most importantly, get involved.

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