Workers' Liberty

(This is an initial assessment, as Tubeworker gets to grips with the facts and the issues. Comments and disagreements are, as ever, welcome.)

RMT has called off its strike action on Metronet after what appears to be a full capitulation by management. The union had demanded that the Infraco drop its plan to transfer the employment of 49 DDMs (Duty Depot Managers) to Bombardier, one of the component companies of the Metronet consortium. Metronet has agreed not to go ahead with the transfer.

Moreover, the various sweeteners that Metronet used to try to lure RMT into accepting the DDMs' transfer remain part of this new deal, so we may now see lifts & escalators contracts brought back in-house, and cleaning services too - if Metronet keeps its promises. And in case it doesn't, the strike action has been suspended rather than the dispute settled.

200 employees will, however, transfer. They are all senior managers and admin staff, widely disliked by the workforce. RMT does not negotiate for this group of employees, who are largely members of TSSA. Other TSSA members, whether in Metronet, LUL or other companies, should reflect on how their union has done nothing to prevent its members being re-privatised.

It remains to be seen whether the thousands of RMT members in engineering and fleet grades will be adversely affected by the fact that their senior managers will now work for a different employer. For example, will these managers have a role in hiring and firing workers? And if so, will there be a problem in taking industrial action against a different employer in defence of a sacked workmate?

That said, this dispute was not about 200 non-RMT members but about 49 RMT DDMs, and on that issue, the union has clearly won. DDM is a very low-level manager grade, which might in the past have been called 'depot foreman'. Having seen their workmates from other grades prepared to strike in their defence, we can now hope that they will see which side their bread is buttered on and integrate themselves into a unionised workforce.

RMT's leadership had tried to persuade rank-and-file reps to accept the much poorer offer that was on the table last week, Bob Crow arguing at Thursday's reps meeting that it was the best that we could get and a couple of the negotiating reps chiming in with this view. But workplace reps at the meeting responded that they were not prepared to compromise on the central issue of the 49 transfers and so were not prepared to accept the offer. The negotiating team - which includes rank-and-file reps as well as full-time officers - was changed to a stronger one, the top table accepted the will of the reps, the strike action was kept on, and preparations began in earnest for the action. Facing the prospect of an effective strike, Metronet caved in.

Once again, rank-and-file activists have proved that if you stick to your guns, you can win. You do not have to accept crap offers just because your union leaders and officials recommend them. And we can add this to the list of occasions (dating back to 2001 at least - click here and scroll down to the bottom) on which Bob Crow has judged an offer to be "the best we can get", only to be proved wrong.

Key to the success was that the two RMT branches involved - LU Engineering and LU Fleet Maintenance - established a strike committee, which gained endorsement from the union's regional council. This helped to give reps the confidence to refuse to accept the "top table's" recommendation, and laid the foundation for potentially effective action. No doubt word also got back to the various companies that plenty of LUL staff were ready and willing to refuse to work on safety grounds during the strike, adding to its effectiveness.

All in all - a victory for solidarity and rank-and-file self-assertion, we think.