SW Trains dispute
"There is no doubt we will be fighting to restart the action"
On Friday February 8, following a meeting of RMT representatives and branch officers on South West Trains with members of the union’s National Executive Committee, strike action planned for the following week was suspended. Greg Tucker reports on the issues behind that decision, and the tasks ahead for activists in getting strike action restarted.
The government and the press have used every opportunity to label me and other trade union militants as fundamentalists, as wreckers. This hasn’t cut too much ice with most members. At one level this dispute is nothing to do with me, but about the conditions of large numbers of low paid members. The role of any activist is to help their views to be expressed. It’s not me that made them angry – it’s the company.
What other RMT members say
A Revenue Protection Inspector, Clapham Junction:
"We have a fair dispute for fair pay and fair conditions which is the right of every person in the country. I voted for the Labour Party, not New Labour."
A Revenue Protection Assistant, Clapham Junction:
"I haven’t heard anyone at Clapham say they want to go back. The mood is very solid. The TUC should come out and support us and reaffirm its past commitments to renationalising the railways."
Commercial Guard, Waterloo:
" We’re hurting SWT financially, and we must not be afraid of the heavy tactics Souter’s using, of threatening dismissal. We’ve lost the battle, not the war."
"The other strikes will boost the morale of the members. We are getting support from other unions and we are not alone"
"The victimisation of the union is still going on. We’ve got scabbing guards who’ve been listening in the mess room and watching who has been picketing. People have been refused leave, including hospital leave for essential treatment."
"I’ve worked as a guard with Greg Tucker, and I have complete confidence in him as a driver. He’s being attacked because he speaks for the low paid and for ethnic minorities. He has dedicated his working life to railway workers."
"The mood at Waterloo is very solid. The pay deal and discipline are the issues. ASLEF members have given a lot of sympathy to us. Good luck to them, they got a good result. But the way we’ve been treated - it could be them next."
While the high profile I have received has been used against me in some quarters, the overall impression I have talking to people is that they are very positive that they have someone who is talking their language and representing their views. I’m very heartened by the level of personal support I have had.
The image of the RMT that most people have is of a union where the members are middle aged men and that’s still true of most of the people who hold positions even at branch level. In terms of the workforce we have a large number of black workers and women workers, and at Waterloo some of the best new activists are from these groups.
Low paid workers have taken six days strike action already and as well as losing significant amounts of money through this: many have lost even greater amounts through the overtime ban the company has imposed to break the dispute.
There is so much intimidation, both at a collective level through the overtime ban, the withdrawal of the right to book leave as well as harassment targeted at individuals who have been on the picket line, for example. There have been two new suspensions of people involved in the dispute.
Sacrifice service
On Friday the company announced that it was re-organising the rosters, so that people would have had to take 4 days strike action next week rather than 2. Yet again the company demonstrated that it was prepared to sacrifice the level of service to the public in order to face down the union.
In that of course they have had support from the government and its instruments. We have seen the Health and Safety Executive declare that there is no problem with managers taking on duties normally carried out by guards and station staff – despite having reported to them incidents involving trains being waved away with open doors or when signals are at red.
The Strategic Rail Authority has waived the fines against the company for poor performance both on strike days and non-strike days.
Last week the company said they were prepared to discuss not the current pay claim, but the claim that would be due in October 2002. Union officials went off to meet them for talks about talks.
Having seen the letter from the company, I argued that there was no basis for calling off next week’s action. Of course there was pressure. But its like running a marathon – you come up against a pain barrier and you just have to run on through it.
In any campaign of industrial action you have to constantly fight to keep people out. We would probably have lost some people next week, but we could have fronted it out.
People have said before that there would be a drift back, but the strike has remained remarkably solid.
There is a huge degree of loyalty. What is needed is leadership: arguing with people, reminding them about the issues we are fighting over. It’s a continual process and I think we could have held the line.
Members solid
RMT members in my branch are still very solid – they didn’t want the action suspended. There are a lot of people who are very upset that the dispute has been undermined in this way, but we will be fighting all the way to regain the momentum.
We have built up some links with other workers in struggle. People know about the strikes on Arriva and the overtime ban in Scotland – and the activists know the people involved because we are quite a small union.
We have had PCS members on our picket line and when we organised a march on Monday 28 January quite a lot of PCS strikers came along to the rally afterwards. There were two speakers on the platform from their dispute.
And the connections work at other levels too – people have partners and friends who are teachers or health service workers and see that many different groups of workers are facing similar problems.
Its also been clear at many of the meetings I have spoken at that our dispute has given confidence to other people. People have said, for example, at NUT meetings I have addressed that it made it easier to argue in their workplaces that people should take action being able to point to others who were doing it.
Despite the attempts to find members of the travelling public who will condemn the action, a remarkable number of people are supportive. People blame the Tories, management and the government for the situation on the railways before they blame the RMT.
There has been a small amount of abuse when we have been on the picket line, but both there and at work on non-strike days the majority have wished us well. Despite the fact that the company is continuing to put leaflets out to the public, saying that I am personally responsible for the whole rail crisis, when I get recognised at work on the barrier – as I often do – people are supportive and friendly.
This is both because they recognise that the real crisis is caused every day by privatisation, and on the other hand are making a basic expression of solidarity with workers in struggle.
The support we have had from the Socialist Alliance during the dispute has been very positive. Local Socialist Alliance groups have organised lots of meetings at which strikers have spoken and organised collections both there and on the streets.
Other Socialist Alliance members have taken up the dispute directly through their unions.
The fact that we have a political organisation that supports our campaign when New Labour is clearly on the side of the company is very useful. It has certainly had an effect on RMT activists – people have joined the Socialist Alliance – and others have said they want to go to the Socialist Alliance Trade Union conference.
International
We also have built up some international links – we have had contacts with rail workers and socialists in Italy, Germany for example.
The Ligue Communiste Révolutionnaire, French section of the Fourth International organised a meeting in Paris a few weeks ago. They showed Ken Loach’s film The Navigators, and I spoke about the dispute to more than 100 railworkers from across France.
The threat of privatisation, and the dire consequences it has had in Britain, is something most activists in the industry recognise, whichever country they are in.
The union will meet the company to demand it lifts the ban on overtime and sick pay and stops the new round of victimisations prior to any discussion of the pay claim. Souter and his cronies won’t budge.
The Executive and reps will have to decide where to go next. There is no doubt we will be fighting to get the action restarted. The prospect of action from the pay ballots on London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway and Silverlink will hopefully give us a boost in doing that.
This all means that it is vital that solidarity work continues. We still need money. We still want to come and speak at meetings.
For further information about the work of the strike support group contact Gill at [email protected]
Notes: RMT: Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (the largest Rail union); PCS: Public and Commercial Services Union (civil servants); ASLEF: Rail drivers' union