Rail Dispute: A Meeting Gives Hope.

It is good to hear that ACAS is now involved in this power struggle between the government and the RMT/ASLV combination making life impossible for huge numbers of commuters in the south-east. Although the government pretends it is just a bystander, it is in fact the key player. This is because the Southern is a semi- nationalized franchise in which the company are paid a fee to employ the staff and run the service and the government collects the proceeds of the fares. If this dispute, which is not really a dispute at all but an attempt to block a modernization programme, continues without resolution, it must make sense for the government to take back the franchise and sort the mess out. That is what government is for.

I should add to my virulent attack on the train unions yesterday by pointing out that the vast majority of unions do not strike and are model examples of responsible trade unionism. This gives us industrial relations which are both productive and profitable to everyone and among the best in the world. All the more reason to bring an end to this blot on the national record. This is not the right use of union power. Equally the pretense of the government that it is just an innocent bystander is utter rubbish. At some level it is the author of the crisis and it is certainly in it right up to its neck.

 

Leave a Reply