25 July 2012
The PCS union has seen sense, or capitulated to legal manoeuvrings, or won their victory, depending whom you believe. In calling off the planned action that would have potentially disrupted Heathrow on the eve of the Olympics, the union looked to have climbed down, bowed to the political orthodoxy that striking at this time of great national pride would lose friends and alienate the public.
Yet within minutes of the border strike being called off on Wednesday, the RMT union was announcing another win – £860 for signalling workers at Thales. If the PCS has arguably floundered in recent days, other unions have done well.
Three weeks ago, as business executives and politicians gathered in a City lawyers' offices to discuss Olympic plans, artfully placed loudspeakers from some uninvited guests outside blasted a familiar tune: "You don't get me, I'm part of the union." The capital's transport commissioner, Peter Hendy, flanked by the mayor, Boris Johnson, the transport secretary, Justine Greening, and the Games organiser, Lord Coe, joked that the mob outside would soon all be in the pub.
Yet while the Olympic bigwigs dismissed the Unite union's protests, the mayor budged, and a few extra million were found. Every bus worker in London would get at least £500, and the majority £577. It was just the latest in a string of Olympic victories for the unions.
Even now, East Midlands train drivers under Aslef have announced a three-day strike in the heart of the games period, potentially affecting the athletes of Team GB's travel plans from their Loughborough base as well as spectators. And the RMT is still hoping to crack the considerable nut of Brian Souter, the Stagecoach boss, to squeeze late concessions from South West Trains to add to their long list of Olympic bonuses.
The crucial question is still whether unions can carry public sympathy if the Games are disrupted. Even the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, denounced the planned border strikes as "totally wrong". Conservative politicians called for reform of labour laws, the London mayor described workers as "the victims of union bosses who are plainly intent on exploiting the Olympics for political ends". And Greening used the popular sporting cliche: "If there were an Olympic sport of self-interest, Aslef union leaders would win it hands down."
It's a sensitive topic: even the TUC refused to comment beyond declaring it had "given strong backing to the Olympics project right from the start". Little wonder that Hendy, at Transport for London overseeing the vast majority of Olympic travel flashpoints, was confident that strike threats would founder on the rocks of public disapproval – not just media or Westminster condemnation, but workers' own family or mates down the pub, people invested in the idea of the Olympics and wondering why anyone would want to mess it up.
The leader of Unite, Len McCluskey, made headlines by calling on unions to exploit the chance of the Games for maximum disruption, saying: "If the Olympics provide us with an opportunity, then that's one that we should be looking at." Unions have in fact had their eye on a deal within months of London first winning the Games back in 2005.
The Sydney Olympics back in 2000 was the model that interested Bob Crow's RMT. Their Australian counterparts had secured an extra A$4 (£2.66) an hour as part of an attendance deal. As far back as 2006, Crow fired a warning shot that, without a no-strike deal, "we could have difficulties".
By 2010 the pressure was turned up. But while there was little natural sympathy from those overseeing TfL in the mayor's office, the soon-to-be head of the railways had already entered into Olympic agreements in his previous role – building the Olympic village. As head of the Olympic Delivery Authority, David Higgins had reached formal understandings with construction unions. And with Higgins at the helm in May 2011, Network Rail were the first to sign a no-strike deal.
The news sparked the first of many furious headlines: the Express denouncing the "ludicrous concessions" under the headline, Rail unions win Olympic gold – a splash treasured by the RMT, which put it on the front page of its in-house magazine. A union spokesman said: "Once the Express realises you're winning the class war, then it's game set and match."
In fact, according to a Network Rail spokesman, the track operators agreed bonuses with less than 5% of the 35,000 staff. They will pay an Olympic bonus of £500 (on top of overtime) to those relocating to, or doing extra shifts in, the critical junctions around London. But, he stressed, the only people getting bonuses would be the ones doing significant extra work.
Yet the perception of "bungs" and unions "holding the Games to ransom" was being sown in the press. Other key transport services tumbled in behind: Aslef tube drivers won a deal worth from £500 to more than £1,000 with overtime. Ticket staff from the TSSA followed with £850, a deal later matched for RMT tube workers, with similar for Virgin train and London overground workers. Most spectacularly, the RMT won a potential £2,500 for Docklands Light Railway train managers in January – denounced by Tory MPs as "bonuses for just doing their job".
And bonuses followed for those less crucial to the Stratford Olympic heartland — Boris Bike staff won a £500 bonus, Heathrow Express workers got £700, and the RMT even managed to secure an Olympic bonus for First Great Western train and station staff as far down as Penzance.
But, as the unions don't tire of pointing out, executives stand to make big bonuses too – over a million pounds to be split between seven people at the top of TfL, the Telegraph reported last month, though TfL say they are performance-related rather than Olympics bonuses.
Revenue from extra passengers will boost the coffers of operators. And the constant messages to "Get Ahead of the Games" means the public is fully aware of how stretched the transport system is going to be.
Given rising unemployment, widespread wage freezes, public sector cuts, persistent inequality and the bleak economic outlook, it would be hard to make a case that workers are, as the RMT claims, "winning the class war".
But the Olympic experience has encouraged unions. As Peter Kavanagh, Unite's regional secretary for London, put it: "Strike action is always a last resort, but for those who say it achieves nothing, we say just look at London's bus workers."
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