The most awful barb used to bludgeon strikers of various hues – baggage carriers, signalmen, and criminal barristers – is a comment on how selfish they are in shutting down essential public services. This argument is so torturously illogical that it amounts to anyone who does something essential being your personal slave. The argument apparently goes that as long as someone does something apparently critical or essential, like ensure the railways are functioning properly, prosecute defendants in murder trials, or lug huge baggage largely so you can fester in some tourist trap, they should have no representation in terms of their working conditions, subject to whatever whim their employers impose on them.
When did our society begin to have such contempt for workers? I believe strongly this is also the reason that some of the most poorly-paid workers in this country do not support strike action. It’s because it’s not fair that other workers are stable and unionised, even if they are subject to worsening pay conditions, not properly adjusted against soaring inflation of 11%. It isn’t fair – the precariat, people who work for care unions, hospitality unions, are not properly represented, and therefore must live hand-to-mouth, often living in real terms on less than minimum wage. This is not fair and RMT signalmen do have a better deal than this. But the ruling class have convinced you that RMT signalmen are somehow to blame for this, when it is them, creating a society that relies increasingly on agency work, zero-hour contracts, and mass precarity.
No union can represent them because their lives are so unstable and zero-hours that they do not have enough structure or stability in their lives to be part of a union. This is a soaring number of workers. If they were able, somehow, to organise, then strike action could really be effective in signalling that this society is just not equal or fair enough.
Squidditas 