Rail workers from 15 railroad and Network Rail infrastructure companies have voted for an industrial strike to defend their jobs, wages and conditions.
About 40,000 members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union voted, 89 percent of whom voted to strike, with a turnout of 71 percent. Keepers, platform staff, ticket offices, track officials and signal crews were expected to vote.
Rail workers face a historic attack on jobs, working conditions and wages, with cuts of £2.5 billion. 2,500 jobs have already been cut through a ‘voluntary’ layoff scheme, and thousands more are set to be destroyed as the Johnson government presses ahead with its plans for the ‘Great British Railways’.
Despite an apparent strike by railway workers – the largest since the privatization of the railways in 1994 – the RMT once again handed over the political initiative to the government, calling for negotiations.
In a statement issued Tuesday evening, RMT said: “The union will now demand urgent talks with Network Rail and the 15 rail operators put to the vote in order to find a negotiated solution to the dispute over wages, jobs and security.”
“We sincerely hope that ministers will encourage employers to return to the negotiating table and reach a reasonable deal with RMT,” said Mick Lynch, RMT’s general secretary. Tasked with scheduling the strike, the RMT’s National Executive Committee (NEC) postponed any decision on the limited strike until its next meeting on May 31.
The RMT uses the vote to strike as a bargaining chip, aiming to pressure the government and employers to resume work with rail unions. The NEC announced: “We note that prior to the vote, regular industry-wide meetings were held. We are therefore calling for an industry forum that brings together employers, the Rail Industry Recovery Group (RIRG), the Employer Coordination Group, the Department of Transport and the rail industry associations to address the issues of this conflict.
This should serve as a serious warning to railway workers. Secretary of Transportation Grant Shapps initiated the founding of RIRG in December 2020 to begin a comprehensive pro-market restructuring. Capitalizing on the collapse in price revenues during the pandemic, the government has unveiled a massive “efficiency gain” program as a prelude to revitalizing nationalized railway companies in 2020.
Unions RMT, ASLEF, Unite and TSSA joined the RIRG, and signed an enabling framework agreement that pledged to “address efficiency and cost savings” as part of the Tory government’s plans to “rebuild and modernize” the railways.
to treat MirrorFollowing Tuesday’s results, as newspapers announced a nationwide strike, Lynch said, “This is a normal industrial dispute. It does not conflict with a political programme. The only political program being promoted is that of this government. And his program is to keep people on low wages and impoverish them to ensure Austerity.”
Lynch’s statement confirms that RMT will not engage in any political struggle against the Johnson government’s plans. In fact, the RMT vote made no mention of GB Railway, despite its leading role in the government’s privatization programme.
While Lynch says the RMT has no political programme, the Johnson government is making no secret of its own plans. Over the weekend, Shapps warned that his government would pass legislation to ban rail strikes if minimum service levels are not maintained. He said Telegraph Sunday“If they really get to that point, then minimal levels of service will be a way to protect these shipping lines and that kind of thing.”
The Conservative Party’s pledge to ban rail strikes is inspired by Spanish anti-strike legislation on “essential services”, inherited from Franco’s fascist dictatorship.
With inflation at a 40-year high, Britain’s ruling class reacted nervously to the prospect of a nationwide rail strike. Dozens of newspaper articles and editorials have warned that such strikes must be avoided at all costs, underscoring an already serious supply chain crisis. The cableThe timesand the financial timesAll drew on the precedent of the 1926 general strike.
TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes was widely quoted as saying that “the disruption will be unprecedented. I don’t think we have seen anything like this since the general strike of 1926, the last time the three unions went on strike together. And we will coordinate our action. It will be a summer of discontent.”
The British general strike of 1926 brought together 1.5 million workers who supported the miners’ struggle against wage cuts and longer working hours. It took the character of a rebellion, threatening capitalist power in Britain, but was betrayed by the General Council of the British Trade Union Confederation (the Congress of Trade Unions), which ended the strike after nine days. The general strike took place less than 10 years after the Russian Revolution and was led by the Socialists. But the Communist Party, under the political leadership of Joseph Stalin, played a decisive role in defeating the strike by promoting the illusions of the “left” trade union leaders who stifled the strike.
As millions of workers struggle to survive, the conservative and “liberal” press is right to fear the emergence of a united mass movement of the working class. But nearly a century after the 1926 strike, the idea that Curtis, Lynch and their associates could launch such an attack is laughable. At the head of the trade union organizations fully integrated into the structures of business and the state, these well-paid civil servants are stubborn enemies of the working class. The general strike will develop only in the case of political opposition to the unions and through organizational separation from them.
While Lynch claims he has no “political programme,” the RMT suppresses railroad workers’ opposition and directs it behind Labour. For the London Underground, Lynch described Labor as an ally of railway workers, called on his MPs to speak at rallies and called on London Mayor Sadiq Khan to “select which side you are on”. Khan is implementing £400m cuts on behalf of the Conservative Party, and has denounced the London Underground strikes.
Labour’s support for the Tory government’s rail program is an open secret. Last year, during the House of Commons debate on the British Rail White Paper, Shapps thanked Labor MPs for their “tacit support” and “partial welcome” to the government’s proposals.
RMT is calling for an end to wage freezes, a ban on forced dismissal and a commitment “not to make harmful changes to working practices or conditions.” But such commitments are inconsistent with the JB Johnson rail project, which is based on destroying security, jobs, wages, conditions and pensions.
As the government moves forward with its plans, including the establishment of a GB Rail Transition Team led by Network Rail President Andrew Haines, RMT’s primary concern is to retain its institutional partnership with the government and employers in the rail sector, hence their central demand for negotiations via RIRG. .
RMT and the company cannot be relied upon. Strike and file committees should be formed in every warehouse and workplace to take the lead in the dispute. Such committees could win huge support from workers in the UK and around the world who are protesting against hyperinflation and austerity. While capitalist governments claim that “the money does not exist” for transportation, health, education and other necessities, the wealth of billionaires is increasing exponentially and billions are poured into NATO’s proxy war against Russia. The only answer to the anarchy and irrationality of the capitalist profit system is the struggle of the working class for socialism.
(Article published in English on May 26, 2022)