Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer by this sun of Shadwell. Well that’s what the egregious Bob Crow would have us believe.
I have watched with dismay and distaste as the fat-cat union leaders who pocket five-figure salaries cheerfully call for a general strike. Okay, so they call it civil disobedience, but this is code for a general strike – and at least Bob Crow, perhaps the nastiest of the lot of them is at least honest about what he is calling for. These people busily trouser taxpayers’ money while waging a war against their paymasters. If they get their way, it won’t be them having to manage on reduced incomes and it won’t be them dealing with the fall-out in the workplace afterwards.
I was once a member of the RMT (and no, I did not vote for this man to be the union’s leader as I was well aware of what a nasty piece of work he was even back then). As a signaller, it was sensible to belong to a union as they provide support and legal representation should it be needed – and I would still recommend membership. And, as a signaller back in 1994, I went on strike. I didn’t much like the idea but was aware that this was the least worst option. Not going on strike would mean being ostracised for the rest of my time in that workplace. I worked with people who still bore grudges from a previous action some twenty years earlier. People who defy strikes regardless of circumstances will be find rebuilding the relationships afterwards difficult. It is pragmatic, therefore, to go along with the strike even if one doesn’t believe in it for the sake of long term working relationships. What union leaders fail to address is that people have to work together when the dispute is settled. But, then, it isn’t their problem, is it? What we are seeing here is a power trip. An excuse to whip up ordinary members in the same way that Arthur Scargill did in 1984. These people are no friend of the ordinary worker on £20k per year, they are the very thing they rail against; powerful, wealthy men who will manipulate others for their own political ends.
As the Devil points out, their membership is somewhat less than it was. For the most part, those of us not in the public sector probably won’t notice over much if they do go on strike. And, let’s be clear here, those awful cuts are for the most part a reduction in increases, which is not the same thing at all.
Since the elections in May, my criticism of the new government has been largely muted. This is in part because nothing could have been worse than what went before and I am seeing how things go before wading in too deep. I deplore nonsense such as the “Big Society” and have been quick to say so. But, but, but, Bob Crow, Brenden Barber and the rest of the dinosaurs at the TUC are the real enemy here. The government is legitimate and elected – even if it wasn’t quite what we expected. It is not the place of the TUC to set policy – it is parliament. I expect this government to stand firm in the face of such blackmail. I would also like them to stop all taxpayer funding to the unions.
If the unions want a war against the British people, then perhaps we should let them and let them lose badly. What would be a satisfying outcome would be a refusal to vote in favour of strike action as has happened repeatedly to brother Crow in his previous attempts to bring the signallers out on strike over the past decade – only finally getting a “yes” mandate earlier this year.
Take a look at the photograph that accompanies this article. A picture of malevolence if ever there was one. Take a good long look at the face of the enemy. This is a man who takes £79,564 in salary, £26,115 in pension contributions and £13,013 in expenses while using ordinary rail worker’s livelihoods as a political pawn to fund his ego trip.
What a stinking fucking hypocrite.
Ah you were there in ’94 as well were you ? I remember it well, what larks we had, on strike intermittently for three months and not a great deal to show for it in the end, except that I got to re-write our roster, the power ! I think comrade Robert is deluding himself here, we just aren’t going to follow him on to the street, there is absolutely no stomach for any strike action, let alone one to try and bring down the government. In the unlikely event that the membership voted in favour ( what would be the supposed casus belli ? ) I would take the fallout and come to work, I don’t think I’d be alone. That yes mandate you mention was by the narrowest of margins, which was why the High Court found it so easy to overturn, although the irony of this happening about the time of the General Election when a fair number of people were disenfranchised by the incompetence of our electoral system wasn’t lost on us, no annulling the vote there.
Yes, we pretty much got what was on the table before the strikes started. Local signalling inspectors became pariahs because they were forced to work signalboxes and in some cases, boxes they weren’t competent to work.
On each occasion when brother Bob has tried to get the signallers out since, he has failed and a good thing too. He might bring LUL to a stand at the drop of a hat, but signallers are less easily led.
Speaking to some of my erstwhile colleagues there is much discontent about basic stuff such as rostering and the behaviour of the local management team, but the likelihood of a walkout is remote. Indeed, the people in one box I used to manage were so disillusioned with the RMT they effectively went UDI and have nothing to do with them.