Summer strikes may bring country to a halt

The provision of key UK infrastructure looks set to be hit by waves of industrial action this summer as London train drivers prepare themselves for the “mother” of all strikes and BT workers begin voting on a potentially lengthy walkout.
 

The RMT union last night condemned proposals, leaked to the BBC, to axe all train drivers and operators on the capital’s underground system in order to replace them with driverless trains as “lethal and unworkable”.
 
The memo written by Conservatives in the London Assembly urged London Mayor Boris Johnson to sack all 3,525 train drivers in a bid to save £141 million per year. It said that metros in Paris, Budapest and Barcelona all planned to introduce driverless trains, which would lead to a “safer, faster more efficient level of service”.
 
The memo likewise claimed that trains on the Victoria and Central lines were already virtually driverless today and operators were simply being paid to open the doors. But any action to axe staff would also have the spin-off benefit of destroying the “strangle-hold militant unions have” on London’s tube network, the memo attested.
 
But the RMT reacted angrily to the plans and warned Personnel Today that, if such action were taken, it would result in “the mother of all industrial relations disputes”.
 
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said in a statement: “Under normal circumstances, I would be tempted to dismiss this leaked report as some kind of joke, cooked up by anti-union fantasists, but in the current climate of cuts and attacks on public services, we are taking it very seriously.”
 
Such proposals demonstrated a “complete and utter disregard for passenger safety” and the union would “not sit back and allow this lethal and unworkable idea to gain any traction whatsoever”, he added.
 
Staff were already attempting to defend tube lines and station and platform jobs and “our fight for safe staffing levels across London Underground, including the use of industrial action, will continue”, Crow said.
 
Maintenance staff are due to stage two 48-hour strikes, starting next week, in a row over jobs, pay and working conditions.
 
Meanwhile, BT members of the CWU will be sent ballot papers today asking whether they want to vote for strike action over an escalating pay dispute. Andy Kerr, the union’s deputy general secretary, told the Financial Times he was confident that a large majority would be in favour of what would amount to the first national strike at the telco for 23 years.
 
He also warned that industrial action could be protracted as a means of persuading BT to improve on its 2% pay offer for this year. The CWU is seeking a 5% wage increase for about 50,000 blue collar workers, who are mainly responsible for repairing the vendor’s phone and broadband networks and for operating its call centres.
 
“If it takes quite a period of time of industrial action for the company to see sense, we are prepared as a union to go down that route,” Kerr said.
 
The result of the ballot is due to be announced on 5 July.