Terry Conway of Socialist Outlook talked on February 8 to Patrick Sikorski, the member of the RMT National Executive Council representing London Transport workers.
SO: There is obviously a lot of action going on in the industry at the moment with disputes on Arriva and South West trains and the overtime ban on ScotRail. Why do you think it has all come together at this moment?
PS: Well it’s privatisation that is behind it. With the fragmentation of the industry into so many different operating companies bargaining takes place on a company by company basis.
In some grades such as drivers, and some signal staff which are seen as essential to the operation of the service it has been possible to achieve high pay settlements across the industry.
Individual companies cannot get away with paying less than their rivals because otherwise they won’t be able to find enough staff do do these key jobs.
But the RMT, unlike ASLEF, represents all grades in the industry. We want equality of treatment for all members in whatever grade. And we have not been able to achieve that through negotiation alone.
SO: In terms of South West trains, Managing Director Brian Souter, with at least the complicity of the government, has been intransigent until very recently. What’s happened in the last 24 hours.
PS: The company have obviously been worried by our plans for action next week, which will disrupt services for four days, so they have said that they are now willing to discuss the 2002 pay claim over which negotiations would normally start in October.
Two representatives met them yesterday for what were effectively talks about talks. We have a meeting this afternoon with the branch chairs and secretaries and the union reps across the company and things will be clearer after that.
SO: So if you don’t see any further movement from the company over the next week where do you see the dispute going then?
PS: Well we are certainly not going to wait for weeks to see if they offer anything concrete. And if we are still in dispute next week, which I think we will be, then we will be discussing further action.
SO: One of the features of this dispute has been the interference of the government on the side of the company, including through MPs like Keith Hill, who is sponsored by the RMT. What do you think should be done about this?
PS: We have very clear policy on this, agreed at our last AGM, that if Labour continued to act against our interests we would review continuing to give them money. In fact we have had policy in this direction for some time.
And now with the announcement that they are going ahead with the PPP on the tube we will definitely have to review what we are doing.
SO: Well that brings me nicely on to my next question which was about the response to the PPP. Livingstone said last night on Newsnight that the unions can stop the PPP. What do you think the situation is?
PS: Well of course there may be legal challenges. We are particularly concerned about the consultation on the health and safety side.
For example, with the last health and safety report, they delivered five boxes of documents – hundreds of pages each – and we had only two weeks to respond. It was completely unsatisfactory.
We are also going to be looking at restarting industrial action. It won’t be easy to take up where we left off last year, but we will have a serious attempt at it.
We will be discussing with our members on the maintenance side – the people who maintain the tracks, and who maintain the trains.
And things are changing. There is obviously a different mood in the pubic sector from what there was a year ago with the teachers’ ballot on London weighting going ahead now, and some action being planned by UNISON health workers and of course the CWU national action.
The other thing that is different is that these disputes today are being organised from the bottom up, and that of necessity means more rank and file involvement.
Last time round on LUL the dispute was led from the top and based on an alliance with ASLEF that didn’t have enough staying power to reverse government policy on PPP.
So this is also a positive change. Of course we will need to make sure there is support at the top, but the feeling at the base is more confident I think than a year ago.
SO: I agree with what you say about the importance of rank and file organisation, but at the same time there are crucial elections going on in the union at the minute. How do you think that the outcome of those will affect things?
PS: Bob Crow will almost certainly be declared the winner in the General Secretary Election on February 13. That will give new confidence to the membership – that they have put in place someone with a strong record of supporting their struggles.
Bob has a record of supporting the members in disputes, of fighting privatisation. He will fight for a return to national pay bargaining.
Then we also have the election currently in progress for one of the Assistant General Secretaries, to replace Vernon Hince who will retire in April. The left’s candidate is John MacDonald.
If Bob Crow is elected, that will then create a vacancy for the second AGS post, and nominations for that position are likely to open very quickly.
So there is a lot going on at the level of elections.