RMT member on West Midlands Trains
RMT union members at Train Operating Companies (TOCs) have voted to accept the government’s pay offer of 4.75% and 4.5% for 2023 and 2024 respectively, thus bringing the longest railway industrial dispute in our history to an end.
99% of members voted to accept on a turnout of 81%.
From the very beginning of the dispute in spring 2022, RMT members have engaged with the ballot process in big numbers. This was because it was clear that we faced wholesale attacks on terms and conditions alongside the closure of all but a handful of station ticket offices.
25 days of strike action later and we have now reached the end of the dispute. So what have we achieved?
The below-inflation 5% (or £1,750 if greater) that we received for 2022, and 4.75% for 2023, still leaves us worse off in real terms than we were in 2021.
But the Tory government’s position on our pay rise (the Tory offer was 4% for 2023) was that they wanted it to be paid for through ‘productivity’, i.e. selling off hard-won terms and conditions. This has not happened and our jobs, terms and conditions have been left intact – for now.
Strike action gets results
RMT members should remember that the settlement was delivered as a result of rail unions taking strike action, not because of a supposedly worker-friendly Labour government. Rachel Reeves made it clear that it would simply be more expensive not to settle and to further drag out the disputes.
It is clear by the overwhelming vote to accept, on the recommendation of the leadership, that members feel that there is no more to be gained through strike action at this point.
This now opens up a new era for the RMT and the wider trade union movement. With Labour in office, some will hope that we might finally be leaving the dark period under the Tories behind. However, Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves have made it clear that they intend to press ahead with their austerity plans.
An additional threat is posed by the establishment of Great British Railways (GBR). Socialists fight for the whole railway system to be immediately nationalised and run under workers’ control and management. GBR must not become a mechanism for the bosses to drive down the pay and conditions of workers under the pretext of rationalisation.
Furthermore, it is not yet clear that Labour has ruled out allowing private companies to run operations, despite nationalising the TOCs as the contracts expire. Their programme for local bus services clearly indicates that they are happy in principle to contract out bus operations to the same profiteering private firms as before, while routes and fares are set by local public transport bodies.
We have managed to stave off the attacks on our industry for now and we should be proud of ourselves and our campaign. However, we must remain prepared to fight in defence of our interests as the new government begins to establish the new railway regime over the next few years.
If any proof was needed of our willingness to fight back, you only need to refer to the magnificent vote for action by London Underground members in defence of jobs, pay and conditions.
If we are going to be able to both protect jobs and correct our wages, which have been driven down by inflation over the last few years, it will require a militant struggle both industrially and politically.
The RMT must place clear demands on Labour, but should pose those demands to the independent and suspended MPs too – the RMT supported Jeremy Corbyn’s re-election as an independent, and in putting our demands to those independents and the suspended Labour MPs we could speed up the development of a bloc of MPs that fights in workers’ interests.
