Black Country Socialist Party members
As some of the lower-paid workers in the industry, it’s no surprise that after 23 years of operation Unite members at Midland Metro Ltd (MML) have finally had enough, and are part-way through 53 days of strike action.
The company has been happy to pay controllers and instructors to run a skeleton service on strike days, without conductors to take fares and ensure passenger safety.
If it’s good enough for these higher grades on £35,000 to drive a tram during the day time, surely £27,000 is good enough for full-time drivers doing early and late duties?
Despite support for the strike from across the workers’ movement, Labour councillors in Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Sandwell have been largely silent.
Could it be that they are embarrassed at the fact that it’s a Labour councillor, Birmingham’s Ian Ward, who heads up transport for the West Midlands Combined Authority (WMCA), while its subsidiary company MML pays metro workers low wages for intolerable shift patterns?
This is the same Ian Ward who was involved in attempts to fire and rehire Unite members working on Birmingham’s bin lorries five years ago, before being forced back by determined strike action. Labour councillors make up a majority of WMCA’s transport committee – the buck stops with them as much as with Tory mayor Andy Street and MML managers.
Unite should use this leverage to apply pressure. No money from Unite members’ dues should go to support campaigning by the councillors concerned while this dispute is ongoing. This same approach helped secure an inflation-busting pay rise for bin lorry drivers in Coventry, after the Labour council attempted to smash the union.
