[UK] Workers’ Frustrations and Outbursts of Strikes Headed Off by Union Leaders

In the summer there were reports in the press that various trade union leaders were unhappy with the policies of the Labour Government, especially considering that it was the Government leading the attack against the living standards of the working class. There were even suggestions that these same leaders, having nearly five million members in the public sector, might hold their own council meeting to discuss their relations to the Labour Party. Further, there was even talk from one of these unions, Unison, about adopting a “French” attitude towards public sector strikes, such as mini general strikes and organising demonstrations, etc. The meeting, proposed by Tony Woodley, the in-coming general secretary of the Transport & General Workers Union [TGWU], was to include all “concerned” union leaders, and not just the one’s labelled as the “awkward squad”, as some of the left-leaning union leaders are called.

The first speech of Woodley to the TGWU was full of rhetoric about reclaiming the Labour Party from New Labour. The “values of working men and women, the values of socialism” should be reasserted. What he actually means by this is anyone’s guess. No doubt Woodley, to climb the union rungs, has been up to his neck in productivity deals and strike breaking. Should the unions be involved only in workplace matters and not in politics? Of course not, Woodley declares; the TGWU ” has been involved in politics from its foundation and will always be so”. Yes, and those politics have been right-wing and bourgeois to the core. The long history of the TGWU has been one of breaking strikes on the docks, and in other industries as well. The bosses have nothing to fear from the politics of the TGWU.

Such a council meeting was to discuss their relationship to the Labour Party, the level of funding not only to the Labour Party as an organisation, but also to individual MPs. It has become a bone of contention that some of the MPs who they fund don’t support the unions in the Parliamentary lobbies. In the end no such “council of war” took place. It was left to individual unions to pursue their own ways after the intervention of the Blair Government and the Trades Union Congress [TUC].

Unison’s leadership, after its talk about a more “French” attitude to strikes, were clear that non-labour MPs were not to be funded by the unions. The General Municipal & Boilermakers [GMB] were for reducing the number of MPs funded by a third, because these would not support union interests. This would include Peter Mandelson, the architect of New Labour. Aslef (train drivers union), at its Conference in June, had voted to support the re-election of Ken Livingstone as Mayor of London, against the official Labour candidate. Railway workers were later on in the year to find out what Livingstone’s attitude to the workers really is.

The Rail Maritime & Transport [RMT] union however took a decision to consider supporting non-Labour MPs, without formally ending its affiliation to the Labour Party.

The RMT has been working to establishing a separate parliamentary voice outside of the Labour Party. In Scotland it supports the Scottish Socialist Party, which has a block of Scottish MPs. In England it supports the Green Party, which is capable of arranging a voice in the European Parliament. In Wales it has been supporting its former MP for Wrexham, who had been under threat of de-selection – John Marek. Marek was off out of the Labour Party in a huff and stood for the Welsh Assembly as the John Marek Independent Party, with the support of the RMT. By absorbing assorted individuals, anarchists and Welsh socialist nationalists, finally the Forward Wales party has been formed, again with the support of RMT.

The new parliamentary strategy is the work of the leader of the RMT, Bob Crow. He is one of the few trade union leaders who is not a member of the Labour Party. Although the conflict with New Labour has hallmarks of a vendetta, the one bright spot is the conflict going on with John Prescott, the Deputy Prime Minister. Prescott was supported as an MP by the old Seamen’s union, which was amalgamated with the Railwaymen’s union to form the RMT. Since then that has been much friction between the RMT and Prescott, with the latter reported to have ripped up his union card, because of the attitude of the former to the Labour Government.

Prescott, as an MP of the Seaman’s union, was given the use of a “grace and favour” apartment in London for his own use. Now it is the property of the RMT, and the RMT want him out. There is a series of court actions going on to evict him. Prescott, who has two other residences, wants to keep hold of it and has offered to buy the apartment. The RMT insists it wants him out, so it can redevelop the whole building.

Preparing for the 2003 Trades Union Congress

The new general Secretary of the TUC, Brendan Barker, had taken up his post a few months earlier. The “Demon Barber” had made his, and the TUC’s, attitude to the class struggle quite clear. In his first public speech as leader of the TUC was at (London) City University where he declared that the voting power of pension funds and insurance companies should be used to influence the decisions of big companies. “Almost half of the shares in UK companies are held by institutional investors – our pension funds and insurance companies. It is time we made the connection and started influencing the way that investment power is put to use”.

Democracy for the shareholders! – but just let the workers on the shop floor try and vote for immediate strike action, then the workers will find out that democracy is only for the bosses.

Barber went on further: “We’re not interested in casino capitalism; we want sustainable prosperity. Perhaps our job is now to save capitalism from the capitalists (…) If we want good pensions we want the companies in which our pension funds are invested to do well”. Of course the logic is that the TUC must continue to assist the capitalists in ensuring the exploitation of the workers, so that sufficient profits are extracted to keep the whole system going.

Just prior to the TUC’s annual congress in September at Brighton a report was published called A Perfect Union. Trade Union membership had been about 12 million in the 1970s and had been almost halved by the mid-1990s, but had stabilised to 6.6 million. There was scope for expansion if the trade unions could tap into the need for representation at work. The stalinist Morning Star gave a glowing report and an interview with Barber. The “Demon Barber” stated: “In other words, unions must be credible partners working constructively with employers, but having enough power in the work-place to make a real difference to employer decisions”.

Having placated the bosses the “Demon Barber” went around to 10 Downing Street to talk about union involvement in Government decisions. The idea was proposed for a special public services forum in which senior union officials would have an input into government policies. Blair gave this idea a “positive response” and a Government Minister, it was said, would then chair this forum.

This forum being restricted to the input of the unions disturbed the employers’ Confederation of British Industries [CBI]. The CBI insisted that businesses should also have an equal opportunity to have a say; what about the voluntary sector (charities), what about the consumers? In other words they will all want to get in on the act, vie for the leading roles, the limelight!

Discontent Contained at the TUC

Blairs’ Government and the TUC staff, ably assisted by the CBI ensured that any opposition at the TUC was confronted.

For many years a certain amount of discontent has been allowed at TUC sessions. Votes against anti-strike laws were passed again this year. The Government plans for Trust hospitals were condemned. Fears were expressed that if the Government didn’t listen they may lose the next election! The Government felt under pressure and strike action was in the air: so any discontent anywhere had to be attacked, even in the TUC sessions.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer, Gordon Brown, was brought in to explain government plans for public service reform and wage restraint (only for the workers, of course). “Brother Brown” (he is still a member of the TGWU, along with Tony Blair) was there as “the acceptable face” of government policy. He waxed lyrically about equal pay and on learning and skills. Not very impressive, but he was there to soften the Congress up for the debate later, on industry. This brought forth the Government Minister for Industry, Patricia Hewitt, and the Head of the CBI, Digby Jones, to regale union leaders upon the necessity of keeping the economy efficient.

This double act was to prepare for a “private” dinner that same evening for union delegates at which Tony Blair gave a speech. The press were in the meantime given a Government briefing about a tough speech, decrying Left wing policies as an illusion, and that Labour was travelling down the only conceivable path. After the dinner the press asked union leaders about Blair’s speech as outlined in the press briefing – they weren’t too sure whether it was the speech they had just listened too. Surrealism apparently isn’t just confined to the arts.

The international debate was there to give union leaders the opportunity to voice criticism of the Government, without doing too much damage. There were calls for Blair to resign as Prime Minister (it won’t make any difference as Blair had already arranged his multi-million pound retirement pension arrangements), but this was far from the big revolt as featured in the media. Those who voiced calls for Blair to resign were Woodley of the TGWU, Crow of RMT and Mick Rix, the out-going general secretary of Aslef. Rix’s five year term as general secretary of Alsef was coming to an end, so he had to put up for election again. Rix stood down from the Executive of the TUC, and was replaced by Crow of the RMT. Rix failed to be elected again, with less than half of the 15,500 members of Aslef bothering to vote.

The real political test is not just that of an attitude against war, and other international issues, but over the class struggle itself. Here we find that the so-called “awkward squad” is unable to defend the workers, not even at a very basic level.

A Late Autumn Strike Wave

During October and November industrial discontent arose on the issue of pay rises in many industries, most notably those of the postal system, railways and fire brigades, spilling over into other sectors of the public services.

We have already dealt with what has been happening in the postal system, and the plans for restructuring of Royal Mail in our previous issue [CL18]. The programme of the eliminating of 30,000 jobs, out of about 220,000, was about half way through in June of this year.

There are two main trades unions in the postal service, the Communication Workers Union [CWU] and the communication workers section of Amicus, which represent clerical and higher grades. The national secretary of the communication workers section of Amicus, Peter Skite, is reported in The Times in June as saying that he was reasonably happy about the way the three-year restructuring plan is going. “This is the most difficult year and they need agreement on the single delivery, the transport review and automation which are crucial for the future of the business”, Skite said. Then the members of his union aren’t the main one’s in the firing line.

The management of Royal Mail made an offer of 14.5% over an 18-month period if the whole package was accepted, which really means 4.5% plus an extra 10% when all the cost-cutting targets have been met (including the 30,000 redundancies). The CWU responded saying that it had more strings [conditions] “attached to it than the Philharmonic Orchestra”. Royal mail then preferred to ignore the CWU and sent letters directly to all the postal workers outlining what the terms of the offer was. The very small increase (£100 per year) in the London location weighting, because of the increased costs of living in the area.

That issue (London weighting) was enough to nearly cause a walk out in London on 1^st August, but that was only stopped when Royal Mail threatened to hold the CWU responsible for any wild-cat strikes, if they heard about them first and did nothing about stopping them. The CWU then threw in its weight against the offer at the ballot of the 200,000 postal workers involved. It used the issue of London weighting as a separate ballot issue in the hope of obtaining a majority in favour of a strike. They also indicated that a vote for a strike would force management to back down – oh yes?

Royal Mail were already countering the CWU’s bluff by saying that any vote for a strike would mean the workers would still be out at Christmas. There had been previously media releases on how Royal Mail had been training managers, and temporary staff, to keep the postal system going during a national strike.

In the past postal workers had voted for strike action in ballots, but often a strike had not been called. The national vote went against a strike, by a majority of only 2,000. This time the fight would have to be on the workers terms, not on any deal stitched up by the CWU leadership.

There have been many reasons given for the lack of votes against the wage offer. Forty per cent of the workers didn’t vote. In London 15,000 voted, and the majority for the strike action over London weighting was 5:2.

Certainly the areas outside London had been targeted for threats of closure, and intimidation had been rife. Royal Mail had also made it clear that if the vote went against the offer then management would get tough – they would all be out anyway.

But significantly many of the workers must have had a poor opinion of the leadership of the CWU, even though the leader and deputy-leader, respectively Bill Hayes and Dave Ward, are part of the so-called “awkward squad”. In fact Dave Ward, a former London regional official, had sought higher office on the basis of a “better deal for London”. They may talk about New Labour being in cahoots with Royal Mail as much as they like. A little bit of a mushy opposition to Blair is not going to blunt the attacks to come.

Many postal workers would remember the last national strike in 1996 against the then Tory Government. The leader of the union then was Alan Johnson: he is now a Labour Education Minister, in the same Government organising the attacks. That is one of the prices paid for affiliation to the Labour Party!

The Response of the Postal Workers

Initial protests and industrial action over claims for overtime, at Oxford, and London weighting in the middle of October led to Royal Mail attempting to change local conditions as a term of returning to work. The continuous pressure on the workers led a fortnight later to a spreading series of unofficial strikes, which would have soon become national in its scope. Dave Ward, of the CWU, denied the union was behind the strike – it was the management’s entire fault!

The dispute appears to have begun first at Greenford, West London, leading to five London sorting offices being out, followed by sorting centres in Oxford, Peterborough and Glasgow. Oxford (at Cowley and Headington) was particularly militant. A day later (October 29^th) two thirds of London’s 28,000 postal workers were out on strike, being followed by sorting centres in Essex and Kent. By November 2^nd the strikes had spread to Portsmouth and Swindon. Much of the spread of the strike had been because Royal Mail’s management had been moving strike affected unsorted mail to other areas, which led to those workers walking out as well. Even though post-boxes had been sealed in London, and Londoners asked not to post mail “for the moment”, the backlog of unsorted mail was growing.

The Deputy Prime Minister, John Prescott (the mouth), waded into the dispute by threatening Government intervention. The Government had intervened in the Firemen’s strike, and they would do it here if necessary. “We are not party to the negotiations, but this is about modernisation” Prescott said.

The management of Royal Mail then accused the CWU leadership of being behind the strikes. Royal Mail was suspicious about a meeting held at Kings Cross a fortnight previously, and it was here that the strike wave was “plotted”. The response of CWU’s London officials was that they met to discuss two days of action, one in November and the other in December. These would have been official strikes. Norman Candy, one of the two senior London representatives of the CWU stated that they would not have gone to sorting centres to urge unofficial strikes, as this would invalidated the strike ballot over the London weighting issue. The CWU had put in much time and resources for the official strikes, so why should they undermine it with provoking unofficial strikes.

Royal Mail accepted these assurances, and even issued a letter saying that the CWU hadn’t been behind these unofficial walkouts after all. So then who was responsible? Finding it as inappropriate to consider their own provocative actions were responsible, Royal Mail’s bosses then thought it down to troublemakers on the shop floor. For the strikes to have spread as far away as Bristol, Stoke and Warrington from London, then there must be a network of agitators at work. Managers, and assorted private investigators, were stalking picket lines and following individual strikers around. Photographs were being taken and video recordings were being made, in order to try to identify the supposed malcontents. This only further inflamed the strike movement.

Banks, credit card companies and government agencies were announcing relaxing deadlines because of the postal strike. It was business delayed for financial organisations, and they would wait patiently for the outcome of the strike. Bellyaching noises were made about the problems of small businesses and Royal Mail ignored these. When big companies, large users of the postal system, announced they would be switching to other postal service suppliers, then Royal Mail involved themselves in “meaningful” discussions with the CWU. Within hours the strike was over, and negotiations for a settlement were agreed.

Subsequently the planned strike before Christmas was called off by the CWU. Further announcements were made about a settlement having been reached between Royal Mail and the CWU, and that this would be the subject of a ballot of postal workers in the New Year.

Other Workers in Dispute

Running parallel to the postal workers strike had been wage claims by Unison for its own campaign over London weighting. It comes as no surprise that no linkage was made between the CWU and Unison over identical claims. Unison was pursuing a London weighting claim of £4,000 per year for London council workers, many of which are support workers in schools, librarians and caretakers in other municipal buildings.

About a day after the postal workers returned the Firemen were out in dispute, because the deal imposed upon them earlier in the year was to be further phased in. More than half of the country was affected by demonstrations, picket lines and refusals to handle any call out other than an emergency call. Andy Gilchrist, leader of the Fire Brigades Union, hurried in for further talks about phasing in of amendments to the Government-imposed deal. A consultative ballot on strike action was proposed, which if successful would lead to a further ballot before a strike could be called. The demand for a recall conference was resisted, as this would have given some power to the Firemen themselves, rather than the union officials. The authority of a strike call from such a recalled conference would have been difficult to ignore.

Baggage handlers at Heathrow and Liverpool airports had been involved in pay disputes leading to strikes and other forms of disruption.

There were disputes on the London Underground because of fears over safety following a derailment at Camden in mid-October, in which seven passengers were injured. Go slow actions were planned for December. In mid-November a tube driver was dismissed because he had been off sick one day in five over his working career. Having been off with a sprained ankle, he was reportedly seen leaving a squash court, having been involved in “therapeutic” exercise intended to aid recovery. The dismissal of Chris Barrett led to an immediate walkout affecting part of the London Underground network.

The RMT threatened further strikes unless he was reinstated. Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London, shed his worker-friendly image, and declared that it was right for Barratt to have been dismissed. Livingstone has been discussing his return to the Labour Party with the Blair leadership. Livingstone will fit nicely once again back in the Labour Party, with all the other strike breakers, and anti-working class elements.

The threatened strikes have been further delayed now until the New Year. RMT is involved in talks with ACAS, the Government funded conciliation service. Nothing will come out of this. The lesson in this case, as his fellow workers showed, was to go out and stay out until at least the dismissal was reversed.

The Public and Commercial Services Union is unhappy about a government imposed 2.6% pay rise for government employees in the Department for Works and Pension, the body responsible for welfare payments and benefits. Almost 90,000 civil servants are affected by this imposition. There were walkouts of staff in Glasgow, and industrial action in Basildon, Essex.

The last few months has shown that the working class has not lost its fighting spirit, nor has the class struggle been cast into “the dust bin of history” as the CBI would claim.

It is the further developments of the crisis of capitalism, with the never-ending attacks upon the living standards of the working class, which is what the class struggle is all about.

Only by the workers unifying at the base of unions, by extending links, by creating real solidarity between workers in struggle can the fight back against the bosses be pursued. And to do that means ignoring the present leaders of the unions, even those who claim to be disgruntled with capitalism, and are part of a so-called “awkward squad”.

— December 2003