Rail union’s dinosaurs ways of working should be consigned to the museum of industrial relations

FOR much of his career as a lawyer, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer preferred to prosecute than defend. This former Director of Public Prosecutions obviously feels more comfortable when pointing the finger. Maybe that is why he is making such a hash of defending his position on next week’s damaging and unnecessary national rail strikes, […]

FOR much of his career as a lawyer, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer preferred to prosecute than defend.

This former Director of Public Prosecutions obviously feels more comfortable when pointing the finger.

Getty

In its current financial state the railway wouldn’t last a month as an ordinary commercial organisation[/caption]

Maybe that is why he is making such a hash of defending his position on next week’s damaging and unnecessary national rail strikes, promising misery stretching over seven days for millions of working people, patients trying to reach hospital and students taking their A levels and GCSEs.

Time and again at Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Starmer was asked if he supported the main rail union, the RMT, in taking industrial action.

His answer was a masterpiece of lawyerly fence-straddling.

“I don’t want the strikes to go ahead”, he dodged.

Unlike the Corbynite diehards in his party, and even members of his shadow front bench like Lisa Nandy and Wes Streeting, Sir Keir knows this strike is madness. But he hasn’t got the bottle to say so.

Damaging to an economy still in recovery after two years of the pandemic, damaging to ordinary working people who do not have the option of working remotely from home, damaging for thousands of Covid-battered businesses, from theatres to cafes and rail freight-dependent heavy industry.

And damaging, too, for a rail sector saved from collapse during lockdown only by the injection of £16billion of taxpayers’ money ­­— that’s £600 for every household in the land.

Make no mistake, in its current financial state, the railway wouldn’t last a month as an ordinary commercial organisation.

It takes about £20billion a year to run our network and in the year to April 2021 its income from fares, freight and other sources was just £4billion.

Even RMT boss Mick Lynch and his hard-Left lieutenants can work that one out.

His 40,000 rail members would be out of a job without that £16billion provided by taxpayers, some 90 per cent of whom take the train less than once a week.

Since the pandemic, the railways have lost a quarter of their passengers.

As few as six per cent of rail commuters want to return to the office five days a week. Business meetings are moving online.

But some of the RMT leadership live in another world — a Jurassic one largely populated by dinosaurs.

They believe that they can demand a substantial pay rise without promising to reform outdated working practices that, by rights, should have been consigned to the Museum of Industrial Relations.

You may have noticed that trains normally run seven days a week.

But under an agreement dating from 1919 — that’s right, 103 years ago — Sunday working on most of the railway is always treated as overtime.

So, if enough staff don’t want to do a Sunday, services are simply cancelled.

Only 12 per cent of rail tickets are now sold at ticket offices because it’s far easier to pay by contactless and online.

Less confusing, too. You always get charged the right fare. That’s why we’re putting in contactless at 900 more stations.

OUTDATED PRACTICES

But despite this we still have almost the same number of ticket offices as in the days when they sold almost 100 per cent of tickets.

The quietest ticket office sold 17 tickets in three months. Really.

But we’re not asking only RMT members to change — we’re cutting the number of senior managers and their pay.

Mr Lynch justifies the strike by saying the train companies and Network Rail, which runs the track, are not prepared to negotiate on wages.

Totally untrue. There is a sensible pay rise to be had but it cannot match the blip in inflation we are currently suffering — or that inflation will last longer.

And remember, rail workers have done very well out of the last decade of pay rises

Train drivers are earning £59,000, and some for just a four-day week.

The median wage for all rail workers is £44,000 — £13,000 more than that for nurses.

The RMT also claims safety is being compromised by cuts in track maintenance staff.

But it ignores the fact that modern camera-equipped trains can monitor track for potential cracks far more accurately than the human eye, and this technology will save workers from the dangerous task of inspecting rails manually.

So, this is a premature strike based on false pretences.

We as a government believe deeply that the railway is a vital national asset, which should provide safe, comfortable and increasingly green travel in the decades to come.

That’s why we’re spending £96billion on modernising the network.
No government in British history has done this.

But we must modernise minds as well as infrastructure. We can’t allow the dinosaurs to win.

That’s why we are examining the possibility of using safety-qualified — and only safety-qualified — staff to cover on different parts of the network during industrial action.

That’s why we are determined strikers will not be able to top-up shrunken wage packets by doing overtime in the days between and following stoppages.

That’s why, in the longer term, we are examining new legislation demanding a minimum level of service during strikes.

I believe in the railways. That’s why we must win this fight — to save them from stagnation and decline.

In truth, Mr Lynch and his executive are battling not just rail management or the Government.

They are battling against a better future for their members and the country.

They are battling reality.