With Southern rail services going off the rails with days of strikes and the Crown Post Office workers pushing ahead with walkouts, another Winter of Discontent is staring Britain in the face.
Flying into a rage over a pay deal, about 1,500 check-in staff, baggage handlers and cargo crew at a number of UK airports have also called a strike on December 23-24. Some cabin crew at British Airways have also called walkouts.
The unions are flexing their muscles. The unions’ renewed closeness to Labour Party under Jeremy Corbyn has given them the confidence to increasingly instigate strike action. Only last week Corbyn enjoyed the company of the rail drivers’ union Aslef at their staff Christmas party in London.
There can be little surprise that for some unions at least their interests not only coincide with, but will be best served by Corbyn’s political ambitions. After all, it is the Labour party’s stated aim to bring the railway back under public ownership.
When Corbyn won the Labour leadership last September, some of Britain’s biggest unions’ leaders were among the first to greet him with congratulatory messages.
Needless to say, Britain’s union movement was once again welcomed back into the fold of the Labour Party. The result of that can now be felt in the wave of strikes currently threatening to bring parts of Britain to a grinding halt.
Andy Cook, chief executive of Marshall-James, which advises firms on industrial relations, says in a BBC report: “It feels like there’s an undercurrent of discontent building. People are feeling the pinch. Average workers feel they are not being paid in line with profits and therefore are more willing to stand up.”
Frances O’Grady, general secretary of the TUC trade union body, says: “The causes of recent strikes differ from strike to strike, ranging from safety on the railways to closures of post offices. Each dispute is specific to that workplace. Going on strike is always a last resort, especially for the hardworking staff who take pride in their work, and will lose pay while on strike.”
Well, the rail, air and postal strikes are set to cause considerable inconvenience for many over Christmas and the new year. The government should think of some emergency legislation to keep a check on such unions' highhandedness in the transport sector. The hardship for the common man is undoubtedly severe, especially for those who are less mobile.
However, in the union strikes there is something more than what meets the eye – certainly something that goes beyond mere Luddism. Union leaders make clear that they are seeking to topple the Tory government. It seems there is a bid to repeat history.
The frequency and size of walkouts has fallen sharply since the days of the Miners’ Strike in 1984-85 and the Winter of Discontent in the late 1970s. Then, a wave of crippling strikes spread across the country, eventually resulted in the collapse of the Labour government and the election of the Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher. Before the Thatcher era, trade unions wielded more power, while the railways, British Airways and Royal Mail were all state-owned.
Well, the ability of workers to withdraw labour is a vital liberty but that power has to be exercised with responsibility keeping in mind the common man's convenience.
Strikes:
* Post office counter staff (CWU) will walk out on Dec 19, 20 and 22, in addition to those who deliver cash to branches on Dec 23 and 24.
* RMT conductors Dec 19-20 and 31, Jan 1-2; Aslef and RMT drivers Jan 9-14.
* Airport Unite members Dec 23-24.
* Professional pilots’ union Dec 23.
* Cabin crew members of Unite Dec 25-26.
