Workers' Liberty

Come to the RMT mass meeting, Thursday 17th May, 18:00, Royal National Hotel

With LUL management about to impose their awful new Rule Book, the unions urgently need a strategy that can effectively defend their members against this threat to our safety and job security. The sad fact is that up until now, management have set the agenda and have out-manoevred the unions.

So, what suggestions are knocking about for how we should respond?

Encouraging everyone to refuse to sign for it? Too late off the blocks for this one, cos tons of staff have already signed for it.

A pro forma saying that "We don't accept it"? Well, there's no harm in doing this, and it's certainly better than doing nothing. The problem is if this is proposed as the entire strategy. As Tubeworker argued previously, this tactic has been used in the past - for example with Attendance policies - and what happens is that management impose it anyway and over time, the new policy becomes established and the fact that you didn't accept it becomes meaningless. Refusing to accept an attack on our rights is one thing - stopping it is another.

Refusing to work the new rules on the grounds of safety? Yes, up to a point. Drivers could refuse to move off without the second right, controllers could refuse to give authorisation for a wrong direction movement over the radio. Fine. But for some new rules and some grades, refusing the new rules would be meaningless and ineffective. Station Supervisors could refuse to enact the new rules that say that they don't have to do checks at night? How? By doing checks at night! And that is going to bother management how, exactly?! Other new rules apply to situations that do not occur very often, so we could be waiting ages before anyone gets the chance to refuse. Refusal could certainly be one tactic, but it is not something that all grades can do together and it is not a complete strategy.

These ideas amount to sniper tactics that might show some resistance but do not have the power to win outright. Instead, we will need to wage an industrial campaign. But, some people say, there is little mood for industrial action. That may well be true, with the unions themselves partly to blame, after taking their eye off the ball on this issue over the past year and demoralising their own members by dragging out the pay campaign. But it is possible to turn the mood around. How?

By getting out round the workplaces, explaining the issues. By producing publicity that concentrates on how the rule changes affect their working lives and their job security, rather than on how management are not consulting properly (an important issue, but not as important as the content of the attack itself). And by union leaders showing some leadership, showing that they have the energy, commitment and confidence for a fight. If, by contrast, they look like they have given up before the fight has started, then we can hardly expect rank-and-file members to have that confidence.

Comments please ...