Christian Wolmar
“Unions play an important role in society and are needed to protect the vulnerable and the weak, as the RMT does well with contract cleaners. This dispute, however, risks making the union irrelevant.”
At the time of writing, the first few RMT strike days of the planned 27 have just taken place on South Western Railway, causing untold misery to thousands of long-suffering rail users.
Speaking to both sides in the dispute, it seems bizarre that a settlement has not been reached. The crux of the dispute seems (and I use that word advisedly, because there is a lot of smoke and mirrors when trying to get to the bottom of the issue), to be who precisely gives the OK for the trains to depart. The union says the guard must do so, but the train operator argues that this will cause delays of up to 20 seconds at every station, meaning it cannot stick to the timetable.
There is no doubt that SWR has made concessions, notably by agreeing to the presence of a second person on every train. The company says that this person will have, as the unions have sought, a safety-critical role. Indeed, a document in which this was agreed was published on the RMT’s own website and put to the executive, but rejected. The sticking point is that the union wants a “cast iron” guarantee (its press releases invariably contain expressions such as ‘cast iron’ and ‘rock solid’) that the guard will operate the doors.
On the first day of the strike, the RMT’s Steve Hedley (Twitter profile: ‘No war but the class war! It’s either socialism or Barbarism baby! RMT educating workers to rise with our class and not out of it ‘) appeared on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, but SWR did not put anyone up despite being invited to do so. That seemed remiss if the company is so convinced that it’s in the right.
The view among some trade unionists is that calling a strike for 27 days in December, when members need money for Christmas is (as one put it to me) ‘foolhardy’.
Hedley argued that 80% of accidents involving passengers and doors occurred on Driver Only Operation trains. But since the management has conceded on the issue of a second person, this seems irrelevant. And in any case, the RSSB (formerly the Rail Safety and Standards Board) published research three years ago which it claimed showed that safety levels are “as good for passengers who board and alight from trains without a guard being present as they are for those using other services”.
The truth is that the union sees this as an existential issue - but it is wrong. Unions play an important role in society and are needed to protect the vulnerable and the weak, as the RMT does well with contract cleaners. This dispute, however, risks making the union irrelevant and ultimately will do it and its members more harm than good.