The Tube Workers’ Demands Are Just! No to the Media Disinformation and Hysteria!

Workers' Daily Internet Edition: Article Index :

Tube workers’ strike:
The Tube Workers’ Demands Are Just! No to the Media Disinformation and Hysteria!

The Stand of the RMT on the Strike

The RMT union suspended its three-day strike of more than 2,300 tube workers after one day because of progress in its talks with Metronet management. The union, however, did not cancel next week’s three-day strike. Workers from the two other underground unions, the TSSA and Unite, had also been part of the ballot in which the nearly 3,000 maintenance workers and engineers overwhelmingly voted for strike action.

            The workers are saying no to job cuts and pension cuts, and being forced to transfer to other employers. However, the media have ignored the issues and have instead focused on the “disruption” that they blame on the strike. The fact that Metronet, the company currently in administration which is responsible for track maintenance, has refused to give any guarantees that jobs will not be lost and pensions will not be dropped, does not seem to be of interest to the “mainstream” media who are instead trying to whip up and create negative public opinion against the strike.

            The RMT is a union which has taken the initiative in focusing on the crisis of working class political representation in blocking the agenda of the working class for a new and socialist society, practically developing a shop stewards’ network with the aim of resolving this crisis from the grass roots level. This points to the need for workers to represent themselves by consciously participating in identifying their interests and working out ways to fight to achieve them. It points to the need for the workers themselves to become political, to achieve that power whereby it is they themselves who are making the decisions that affect them and the society. It points to the need for a Workers’ Opposition in Parliament to defend the public good against all the wrecking activities of the monopolies.

That such an aim is necessary and that the workers have to fight every inch of the way to defend their interests is being underlined by the establishment’s verbal onslaught on the tube workers’ strike action. The laws which restrict the workers’ ability to take organised action in defence of their interests demand a ballot, with many strings attached, of the workforce. Despite the fact that over 90% of the workers who voted were in favour of industrial action, signifying the strength of the workers’ case, and the necessity for the employers to change their position, they have been pilloried for causing “commuter chaos”.

            In this connection, WDIE condemns Gordon Brown for his intervention in the dispute by branding the strike action as “wholly unjustified”. As the Prime Minister, he is acting totally irresponsibly in leading the charge against the workers and their actions in defence of their interests, without so much as calling for serious consideration of the issues. The monopolies and financiers hold the working people to ransom every day, yet the representatives of finance capital are Gordon Brown’s greatest friends. This is just one example of how far the Prime Minister is prepared to go to consolidate the government’s anti-worker and anti-social programme, another recent example being his placing of Margaret Thatcher, a prime architect of privatisation and monetarism, on a pedestal as a “conviction politician”.

            WDIE fully supports the strike action, and condemns the media disinformation and scapegoating that has been put out into the public domain. The “Evening Standard” is one such newspaper that has presented the strike not as an issue for the workers to uphold and unite around but as an issue of public nuisance. One article claimed that the issue is that the tube workers have the same rights as everyone and so should not be making claims on the society. This stand is one of promoting that the workers should be satisfied with their lot and become apathetic to any whim that these companies and the rich in general see fit. But the maintenance workers are taking a stand against the destruction of their livelihoods, and in this they have common cause with other workers and society as a whole.

            Newspapers such as the “Evening Standard” have also portrayed public opinion as that of disappointment with the strike and that their only concern is for their commute. They promote that the public do not support the tube workers and that the strike is separate from the rest of society’s needs and is against the public good. This does not reflect reality, as the tube workers in their fight are tackling part of the whole crisis of society, which is that of a system run by a rich elite, which is exploiting the workers and is not providing the workers and people with any answers to their needs. So the media are seeking to divide the people with their propaganda that the tube strike is just another industrial action which is a pain in the side of Britain’s so-called way of life. They are attempting to blot out the issues facing the tube workers and make out all the strike means is a “disruption”, and also are attempting in this way to stain the character of the workers taking action.

            The media bombard public opinion in a desperate attempt to mould it and stifle support for the tube workers and prevent people from drawing the conclusion that the workers have the right to resist the project of monopoly capital that seeks to make maximum profit at the expense of the workers. In this sense, the media and who they represent are scared of people having their own experience and applying that experience to what is actually happening.

            WDIE once again salutes the workers who are putting their collective strength in action to defend their rights and interests, and in this case this action is part of the struggle to turn around the transport system so that it serves the needs of those that use it also. The tube workers are correct to take a stand! This stand is a component part of the resistance to turning every aspect of the economy and social programmes into a means to enrich monopoly capital. We wish them every success in their struggle.

On its website, the RMT prior to the strike pointed out that collapsed Tube privateer Metronet and its administrator had failed to give the unequivocal guarantees on jobs, transfers and pensions that the union was seeking.

            "We have been seeking simple, unqualified guarantees from Metronet and its administrator that there will be no job losses, forced transfers or pensions cuts, and we have not had them," RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.

            "The efforts the Mayor and TfL [Transport for London] have put in to try to broker a deal have been welcome, but the problem for all of us remains that Metronet and its administrator are the employer, and the qualified assurances they have given cover only the period of administration.

            "It is astonishing that the administrator can decide all sorts of things, including who will take over the PPP [Public-Private Partnership] contracts, but is unable to give an unequivocal guarantee that the jobs of the people who will actually deliver the Tube's upgrades will be safe.

            "We have been told that the pension-fund trustees will be ‘urged’ to ensure that employees lose no pension during the period of administration, but no amount of 'urging' amounts to a guarantee, and this is not a matter for the trustees in any case.

            "It is the employer's duty to ensure that pension provision will be no less favourable than before the PPP, as promised by the deputy prime minister, and what we need from the employer is the simple guarantee that there will be no reduction in pension rights, past, present or future.

             "We said from the start that our members were not prepared to pay for the collapse of Metronet with their jobs and pensions, and that remains our bottom line.

            "What our members want is to be transferred to a public-sector organisation, and that is the only way in which their jobs and pensions can be protected," Bob Crow said.

            Following the suspension of the strike, Bob Crow said on September 5, "We now have in writing from the employer that the originally proposed pension-scheme rescue is withdrawn, and that a full scheme rescue will be placed before the TfL pension trustees board today, and is expected to be in place by Thursday.

            "This means that our members will now actually have their pensions restored to them, which is rather different than promises from a man in an expensive suit.

            "Further to the existing assurance that there will be no job losses or transfers during the period of administration, we also now have written commitments that any subsequent proposals will be subject to proper discussions through the existing negotiating machinery and the code of practice agreed at the time the PPP was introduced.

            "This means that the threat of 691 job losses, tabled before Metronet's collapse and postponed by the administrator, has been withdrawn entirely.

            "As a result of the detailed talks last night, the RMT executive suspended the current industrial action, although the action scheduled to begin next Monday remains on, pending the successful outcome of today's pension meeting and consultation with our reps on Friday.

            "Our members are to be congratulated for their rock-solid action, and can return to work with their heads held high after sustaining their strike in the face of enormous pressure and hostile media.

            "It is their unity that has given their union the strength it needed to hold its position in this difficult dispute.

            "The dispute has underlined the need to bring the maintenance of London Underground back into the public sector, and that is what our members and the vast majority of Londoners want," Bob Crow said.