Workers' Liberty

I believe that taking strike action now would be a mistake. The length of time these negotiations have taken has been well used by management to divide the workforce. The previous comment has hit the nail on the head. A mixture of betrayal, lack of credible publicity to counter management lies and a desperation to get thier money, has left many members of staff confused and unable to decide which way to jump. We know that management want a fight but we must choose our battle field with care. this is not the time to stand and fight it is a time to retreat, regroup and learn the lessons.
We know the scabs in the staff ascosiations will drive the trains and staff the stations and we would be foolish to believe that every RMT member would come out. This we have to work on.
We need a group of activists from each union to form a joint broad left. this body to agitate inside its respective union for solidarity action.
We have known for some years that we can not rely on Unity House to supply us with agitational material.
We have to be ready next time to print and distribute thousands of leaflets all over the job.
A network has to be built of people willing to produce stuff on thier own computers and people willing to run round and put it out. We have seen how well the management propaganda machine works, now let them get a taste of ours.
Rick Grogan

Hi Rick

I totally agree with you about the need for rank-and-file activists to organise to prevent the union(s) making the same mistakes in future disputes, and to equip ourselves to produce our own leaflets etc without waiting for head office.

And I accept that some confidence had gone out of the fight in some areas, and that a lot of good activists share your view that it was right to call off the strike. But I think that RMT should have gone ahead with action rather than accept the pay deal, for two reasons:

1. Lots of members did want to strike. There are lots of staff on the stations where I work who are bitterly disappointed that they will not have the chance to strike for a better deal and to deliver a message to management. The union should try to raise everyone up to the level of the most confident and combative, not pull everyone down to the level of the least.

2. The pay deal is now exactly what we said it was two weeks ago. It's terrible. It's a three-year deal that requires the unions to put our weapons away for three years while the employer keeps its guns loaded. The annual pay rises are only a tiny amount above inflation (worth less than two quid a week to a station assistant). And it introduces a form of performance-related pay (on a collective, rather than an individual, basis) into the operational grades for the first time ever. That's terrible. It's a case of accept it or fight it, and I can't see how we can accept it.

I accept your point that unions sometimes have to beat an orderly retreat. But only sometimes - this is becoming a habit! In fact, I'm not sure when the last time was that the Tube unions did not retreat (apart from swift victories such as the Raj & Les case).

Following the decision of its national executive today, RMT has issued the press release below. As you can see, the union is pretending that it has won, rather than admitting that it has been forced to retreat. Obviously, any organisation would want to spin any outcome to look as good as possible. But if RMT repeats this PR to its members, they will see right through it.

Bob implies in the press release that the only problem with the pay offer was the 'strings', and that the only 'string' was the tie to later running. So the management line that station staff didn't get their pay rise for months because of drivers' issues was true then?! No, it wasn't true. The issue was also how bad the pay offer was. But that seems to have been forgotten now.

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RMT calls off threatened Tube strike after LUL backs down

LONDON UNDERGROUND union RMT today called off its threatened Tube strike after management agreed to withdraw strings attached to last year's pay deal.

For the past 14 months, LUL has attempted to link the deal with productivity strings such as agreement on late-night running.

But following a three-to-one vote in favour of strike action on February 19 by RMT's 6,500 London Underground members, management has climbed down on the issue.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the breakthrough was due to the fact that the union's LUL members had shown they were not prepared to be pushed around.

"Management's decision has, at last, opened the way for the implementation of last year's pay deal," he added.

"If London Underground management had not attempted to attach strings to the deal in the first place then we could have drawn a line under this matter more than a year ago."

Janine
while I agree with the principle that the Union should be raising the awareness of all workers and not pulling activists down to the lowest common denominator, I dont think that that argument applies in this case.
I agree that many hundreds would have gone on strike in the first instance. The ASLEF would run a partial service with RMT scabs and TSSA members would open some stations with the help of other RMT scabs.
Even though we know this would cost the city of London millions of pounds, the company would have claimed victory and waited us out.
They were determined to fight us and were prepared for a long haul.
If we had called the action and failed to achieve anything after months of sacrifice,rather than raise the level of those that have never been in dispute before, it may well of taken the edge off of some of the activists that we have champing at the bit now.
We realy need to consolidate our strengths and build an efective broad left. The only way we can win in future is with a united workforce. One union for all transport workers. One united action in defence of any part that is attacked. Break the anti trade Union laws untill they are consigned to the dustbin.
Rick Grogan

Hi Rick,

Bit of a scattergun reply but I hope you can see what parts of your last post on this thread I am replying to.

It will certainly take the edge off the eager activists that their union has signed up to such a bad deal. The best time to raise the level of those who have never been in dispute before is during a dispute. Likewise, the best chance of getting solidarity between the unions is when there is a dispute. The main thing that all grades have in common is the yearly pay round. Having no action now probably puts off forming a vibrant inter-union rank and file body for at least three years.

RMT has already fought a protracted dispute on the underground in its campaign against PPP, what makes you think that can’t be done again?

I like the talk about breaking the anti-union laws but we are a long way from doing that if there is no fight against this deal.