By Norm Dixon
LONDON, September 8 — As railway signal workers today embarked on their 16th national strike in 13 weeks, crippling Britain's rail system, support for their cause is growing within the British labour movement. The campaign by the signal workers for an 11% pay increase is a direct challenge to Conservative Party government's public sector pay freeze.
The Tories are determined to inflict a morale-sapping defeat on the signal workers, who are among the Rail, Maritime and Transport union's (RMT) most highly skilled and industrially strategic members. Weakening the RMT is vital to the government's plan to privatise the railways.
Over the years, signal workers have not been particularly militant. Their numbers have halved over the last year, while the volume of rail traffic that they are responsible for has remained constant. This doubling of productivity has not been compensated. Signal workers earn just Lstg173 (A$381) for a 52-hour week with rotating morning, afternoon and night shifts. In late April, the RMT demanded an 11% pay increase.
So keen is the government to nobble the RMT that Railtrack has lost at least Lstg80 million since the dispute began, more than 11 times the amount it would have cost to meet the workers' demands.
Despite its claims of neutrality, the hand of the Tory party has been plainly visible in the dispute. At first, Railtrack management agreed that the wages of signal workers had fallen behind those of other workers and offered 5.7%. When Transport secretary John MacGregor "reminded" Railtrack of the government-imposed limits on pay rises, management turned around and denied it ever made the offer and instead demanded further productivity increases.
It has since been revealed that a cabinet-level committee of senior ministers meets almost daily to "monitor" the dispute.
Signal workers' resolve was further strengthened when leaked Railtrack documents revealed that management was considering sacking all striking signallers and only rehiring those prepared to sign individual contracts.
Since the first strike, the 4600 signal workers have remained solidly behind the strikes. While management has claimed there is a "drift back to work", it conceded on September 5 that only "a handful" of RMT members had scabbed.
Railtrack has been able to maintain a skeleton service by drafting supervisors and managers into the signal boxes. It claims that 57% of its services operated on September 8, up 4% from the last stoppage, a figure vigorously disputed by rail workers.
A visit by this reporter to London's sprawling Victoria station revealed empty departure boards, idle trains at the platforms and thousands of commuters standing about uncertain as to how they would get home. The main organisation representing rail commuters has also challenged Railtrack's claims. Railtrack has moved to undermine public support for the workers by withdrawing refunds to passengers on strike days.
The use of poorly trained staff to operate highly sophisticated signalling equipment has raised concerns for the safety of passengers and other rail workers. The newspaper Socialist Outlook reported in August a litany of incidents that have taken place as a result of untrained and inexperienced people attempting to operate the signals. These included:
- A stoppage by train drivers in Edinburgh frustrated and angry with the number of signalling mistakes being made.
- Inexperienced supervisors put two trains travelling in opposite directions on the same track. A serious accident was averted by the quick response of the drivers.
- At Victoria the manager running the signal box did not how to operate a vital piece of safety equipment and had to spend 45 minutes phoning other managers to find out how to turn it on.
The train drivers' union, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF), has reported near accidents throughout the length and breadth of Britain. ASLEF has called for public investigation into "the growing number of signal irregularities, misrouting of trains and dangers at level crossings".
The ongoing signal workers' actions also come at an inconvenient time for the new leader of the British Labour Party, Tony Blair, and his moderate allies in the Trade Union Congress. Blair's mission is to convince Britain's employing class that Labour is ready to govern on their behalf.
Several leading big business figures, led by "Dirty Digger" Rupert Murdoch, have indicated they may shift their support from the discredited Conservative Party to Labour in the next general elections. In return, Blair and his "modernisers" feel they must prove that Labour no longer owes allegiance to the rank and file of the trade union movement and follow in the footsteps of their right-wing Labor counterparts in Australia and New Zealand.
Ignoring the growing pressure from the ranks of the trade unions, Blair and the other Labour leaders have refused to directly back the signal workers' strike action while being feted by the TUC leadership at the annual TUC congress in Blackpool.
Instead, along with senior TUC leaders, they are urging the RMT to agree to compulsory arbitration rather than using the opportunity to rally the whole trade union movement behind the signal workers to break the Tories' wage freeze policy and privatisation plans.
In stark contrast, left organisations have thrown themselves into building solidarity with the signal workers. Important sections of the Labour left have joined the effort. Community support groups have sprung up in many places around the country raising funds for the strikers, reaching out to commuters and publicising the workers' case. The enormous sympathy for the striking signal workers among the working class was underlined by the passing unanimously of a motion in their support by the TUC congress on September 7.