Militant? Not us, claims union boss
Try telling that to rail commuters and NHS patients!
BRITAIN’S most powerful trade union boss was last night accused of dismissing the misery inflicted on commuters and patients by recent strikes.
Frances O’Grady denied militancy was on the rise despite another walkout hitting Southern rail yesterday and a planned strike by junior doctors next month.
The TUC general secretary insisted there was ‘no evidence’ of unions becoming more hardline even as train workers’ leaders threatened to continue disruption on Southern until Christmas.
She also denied unions representing teachers, junior doctors and rail workers had been working together to co- ordinate an ‘autumn of discontent’.
Miss O’Grady claimed the number of strikes had been ‘very, very low’. Speaking ahead of next week’s annual TUC conference in Brighton, she said: ‘On a more general point, there is no evidence of increased industrial action anywhere. If you look at the strike figures, they are very, very low.’
Asked if unions have become more hardline, she said: ‘I don’t think there is any evidence of that. I think as always what would be more helpful is people addressing the substance of the concerns that people have.’
Official figures published earlier this year show that strike action by transport and storage workers has risen dramatically.
These sectors lost 60,700 days to disputes in the year to October 2015, the most of any part of the economy. This is up from 23,600 in the previous year, said the Office for National Statistics.
Passengers have endured the worst wave of railway strikes for 30 years, hitting ScotRail, Eurostar and Virgin Trains East Coast as well as Southern.
Sian Phipps, a designer who commutes on Southern, said Miss O’Grady’s comments showed ‘how far removed some of these union bosses have got from the dispute in which they claim to have the moral high ground’. Will Quince, a Tory member of the Commons transport committee, added: ‘ It’s completely unacceptable to make comments of this nature and to disregard the impact these strikes are having on everyday hard-working people.’
The Southern walkouts are over plans to give drivers, not guards, responsibility for closing doors. Garry Hassell, of the RMT union, said the dispute ‘could last until Christmas if the company is not to listen to what we have to say’.
More than 900 Southern services were axed yesterday, roughly 40 per cent of the total, in the first part of a 48-hour walkout.
Trade unions have openly admitted to plotting co- ordinated strikes this autumn in a bid to topple the Government.
Leaders of strikes by junior doctors, rail guards and teachers have joined the National Shop Stewards Network for talks over linked action to increase chaos.
The ONS figures also showed that there were 170,000 days lost to strikes last year, the second lowest total on record.