Will ACAS Resolve Our Pay Dispute?
Submitted on 31 August, 2006 - 13:22
Very unlikely, Tubeworker reckons. The unions and management are at ACAS today, so check back to this blog later (or tomorrow) to find out what happened and our view on what the unions should do next.
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Another day ...
Nothing resolved yesterday, another day today with nothing resolved.
There is something about the unions' approach to this year's pay that worries Tubeworker. With TSSA and ASLEF, it's the usual opposition in words only with no sign of any action. RMT is at least now in dispute, but there is a sluggishness about its approach that Tube workers just can not afford.
Today is five months to the day since this year's pay award should have come in. Staff are getting impatient. Management love it like this - they let it drag on as long as possible, then Christmas approaches, the back pay builds up, and people become more willing to settle for crap because at least they'll get a wodge in their pay packet in time for the festive season.
The union should be able to see through this and not let management set the agenda. Otherwise, people might think they also want staff to steadily become more and more deflated until they are not up for a strike and will accept a settlement and save the bureaucracy the trouble of a strike.
Tube workers really do not want a multi-year deal. We would not rule it out on principle, but it would have to worth a heck of lot in money and conditions to make it worth our while. And this offer is very far from that. In any case, workers are well aware that with Livingstone on the warpath and the Olympics approaching, we will have to defend our conditions - and our union strength - year on year, and should not voluntarily lock away our weapons for years on end.
Be warned: what we could see is a negotiation on the multi-year deal that resembles marketplace haggling. LUL says 5 years, the unions say 1, LUL 4 years, unions 2, 3 years? - done! It looks like a compromise but in fact is a disaster for workers.