British railworkers support the miners uniting the two major rail unions) has been forced to call a series of one day stoppages since the miners' strike started. The end result is that during this time large numbers of rail workers have been involved in industrial action - both in defence of their own jobs and conditions,
Rank and file railway workers have been among the strongest in their support for the miners in the fight for jobs. In the Leicestershire coal.
field where the bulk of the scabbing miners are concentrated, railworkers in support of striking miners have managed to seal off rail traffic for
38 weeks from April 4 to December 17.
workers who have stood by a union directive not to move coal, coke or
Unfortunately, the leaders of the rail unions have given little support to the action taken by their members. On January 17 they were forced to call one-day strike action in support of the Leicestershire railworkers who since Christmas have been subjected to harassment from management in its attempt to get scab coal moving. Although the action was confined to the London, Midland and Eastern regions only by the union leadership, rank and file workers in other areas also came out showing clearly that the support for the miners is there and could help to win the strike.
Doreen WEPPLER
As the miners enter the tenth month of their titanic battle, the strike shows no signs of decisive cracks.
Yet the solidarity from other groups of workers has still not reached the level necessary to give the miners victory. This is not because rank and file support for the strike is absent.
Broad layers of workers appreciate that their own future at the hands of the bosses and the Tory government is bound up with the outcome of the miners' strike.
This is particularly true of railworkers.
More than any other group of workers, it has been railworkers - especially those employed at pithead depots that transport coal to the power stations - who have been in the front line of solidarity action with the miners. The fortunes of coalminers and railworkers are closely linked. If the Tory government gets its mine closure plan through, thousands of railworkers whose livelihood depends on the coal industry will lose their jobs. A full 80 per cent of coal is transported by rail, comprising 60 per cent of the total freight carried on Britain's railroads.
It is not surprising, therefore, that the miners' strike today dominates the concerns of the two major rail unions - the
National Union of Railwaymen (NUR)
and the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF).
However, railworkers are also responding to the massive attacks underway against their won jobs, working conditions and union organisation.
Any one of these issues could provoke railworkers into action.
A combined struggle of miners and railworkers would tip the scales decisively for the miners.
From the outset, Prime Minister Margaret
Thatcher and her transport minister,
Nicholas
Ridley, have recognised the
This action was taken by 100 political stakes involved and have instructed the employers, the British Rail Board (BRB), to avoid at all costs any united action between miners and railworkers.
The Tories have been aided in their efforts by the rail trade union leaders. Desperate to avoid any united struggle, at the 1984 pay talks, the BRB dropped its previous insistence that the pay settlement must be linked with five productivity exercies. A massive increase in productivity is central to the intended restructuring of the rail industry in the interests of the bosses.
However, despite this favourable situation for the railworkers, the union leaders accepted a measley five per cent pay increase - hardly more than the rate of inflation. As many angry activists asked Workers' solidarity can win (DR)
HENKS
NUR
A.S.LEF
SEAMEN
T. G.W.U.
ENT and in support of the miners. But because of the policy of the union leaderships, this has been on a grade by grade, or on a local or regional basis. In all cases, however, any action taken by railworkers has automatically linked up with the miners' strike. Towards a national walkout
In the end preparations for national, industry-wide action were started at the end of the summer when union leaders called for a 24-hour strike on September 10. Joint local strike committees of both major unions were elected throughout the country; picket rotas were drawn up; and union literature was distributed.
The issue was job loss. management suddenly announced that yet another 18,000 jobs would be slashed in the next five years, and this figure did not include 10,000 workshop jobs at risk! These cuts would bring the number of British Rail employees down to 137,317 by 1990. And this in an industry where jobs have already disappeared on a massive scale: staff were employed; by 1981, numbers
In the face of the threat of widespread action, management threw down a few more sops. This time they promised little more than a slowing down of the closure programme and cuts in staffing levels. Yet it was enough for the top union officials to call off the September 10 strike at the eleventh hour.
So, as we enter 1985, all the issues remain. The BRB is using every opening it can take to push ahead with its plans to slash the workforce and increase the productivity of the remaining workers. The rank and file are still prepared to fight back. The longer the miners' strike lasts, the more likely it is that widespread industrial action will break out.
Jimmy Knapp, the NUR's general secretary, is seen by most workers as a welcome change from the company unionism of the former secretary, the right-wing Sidney Weighell, but he is still very much on trial. So, for instance, while railworkers have generally welcomed his efforts in establishing the Federation and breaking down the historical animosity between the craft union of the drivers (ASLEF) and the NUR, there is growing concern amongst union activists about his record to date. He is attempting to balance between old divisions which exist
International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
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BRITAN
in the industry, with the end result that any developing unity which has real power is being defused.
This is especially serious in light of the dire situation facing railworkers.
low pay continues to plague the industry. The 1984 pay award did not alleviate the problem.
Long hours are put in on the railways by workers trying to tackle the decline in the real value of their low wages. Running the industry on overtime suits man-
It is less expensive than employing new workers, and it divides and weakens workers who are vying against each other for additional needed hours. In 1979, railway staff overtime averaged 14 and a half hours a week, compared with a national average of six hours. Furthermore, the overtime rates themselves are poor. So manual workers on British Rail ended up with a total weekly wage in 1979 which was £3 below the national average, although they put in double the hours of overtime!
Low wages and long hours make British railworkers more productive than their counterparts in 12 other European
Management can truthfully claim that it runs the most cost effective major railway system in Europe. However, this has been achieved on the backs of the workers. Far from aiming to run the rail industry as an efficient, safe service in the interests of working people, the Tory government and management are out to increase profit margins and share out the dividends with Britain's wealthy few.
This is what is behind today's widescale privatisation in an industry like rail, which was nationalised in 1947. It is part of a more general drive by Britain's rulers to increase their rate of profit which has been badly damaged by the economic recession, at the expense of the working class. The goal is to roll back the frontiers of public ownership which workers recognise as a gain.
By taking profit-making sectors away industry and promoting a balancesheet approach to it they hope to put more pressure on the remaining workers to increase their productivity to make the books balance, even though large profit figures have now disappeared from the income columns. Furthermore, they hope to weaken union organisation on the job by splitting up the workforce between different employers.
The damage to date has been severe and there is still more to come. The 1980 Transport Act put the National Freight Corporation into private hands. British Transport Hotels, Sealink, Hovercraft and some BR property were sold
1981 Transport Act. every case working conditions have de-
The British Rail Board recently awarded the contract to build a new lightweight train to a private firm, instead of to the BR-owned engineering works - BREL - for the first time since nationalisation. This is part of the preparations to sell off BREL as a whole. International Viewpoint 28 January 1984
Management is taking any opening it finds to put the industry in private hands. Outside contractors are being used everything from track maintenance work station cleaning, to on-train catering services. Entire money-making lines being earmarked for privatisation, such as the London to Gatwick airport
These measures were carefully preppared by the publication of the Serpell report at the end of 1983. This report is the product of a governmental inquiry into the dire financial straits of the rail
Although neither the government or the BR Board has officially endorsed its drastic proposals, they are being implemented by the back door.
Serpell proposes in his report that up to 80 per cent of Britain's railways be shut down, including all major freight carrying lines around Manchester, Nottingham, South Wales and Scotland. As the miners' strike has revealed, if it were implemented, this plan would sever the links between rallworkers and miners by transferring the transport of coal to the road haulage industry. The political character of this proposal is evident. Serpell considers that the expense, danger on the roads and irrationality of carrying out 200 lorry movements for each trainload of coal or ore is a necessary price to pay to weaken the trade union
In a country where 39 per cent of all households do not own a car and 60 per cent of the population do not hold drivers' licences, the report argues that passengers should be transferred wholeSqueeze on the railworkers
Needless to say, in an industry which has been starved of investment, Serpell wants to continue the situation whereby the level of investments per trainkilometer on BR is the lowest of the ten major railways in Europe. unions often point out, in 1982 - 1983, the government was more than willing to fork out an average of £13.50 per household per week on arms expenditure, yet it can find no more than £15 per head for each person in Britain per year towards the railways. A defence budget of £14 billion for 1982 - 1983 compared to £4.3 billion spent on the entire British
Today BR management is introducing the proposals in the Serpell report in a
This is part of the preparations to tackle the rail unions head-
The miners' strike has slowed down the British Rail Board's plans. Although the Board agreed to separate the productivity exercises' from the negotiations on pay, they cannot afford to put these measures off much longer. The principle of the eight-hour working day already has been lost with the introduction of flexible rostering. Now the Board wants to bring in 'Driver Only Operation' next. This particular productivity exercise will leave drivers on their own on the train to cope with everything from mechanical problems and passenger needs to mishaps of all kinds - including derailments, fires and so on. The entire grade of guard 12,000 jobs in the most militant grade of
So far national industrial action -where railworkers would be out with the
- has been avoided. miners' strike has had a deep impact in rail industry. fidence to fight back against attacks on has increased as a result of the miners' strike. Unofficial industrial action by local railworkers in Coalville, Leicestershire, demonstrates railworkers are also prepared to take action in support of the miners. The hundred railworkers at Coalville are in the heart of scab country. Yet they have refused to shift the mountains of stockpiled scab coal which now dominate their depot. The work of their depot is based primarily on transport of 135,000 tonnes of coal each week, from four local pits to the big power stations in the Trent Valley.
Roy Butlin, one of the rank and file leaders at the depot, told International Viewpoint about the pressure his members were under last April, when they decided to support the miners:
•Serious financial difficulties were only one consideration. When we decided to back the union decision not to shift coal, we were only entitled to £1 strike pay a
It wasn't until late June that the union changed this to £11 a day.
*But just as important as the money was the recognition by all of us that if we voted to back the union, we were putting ourselves on the line with respect to our neighbours, friends and families. I say this because only 30 of the 2,500 miners in our area are on strike. town is built on the mining Most people are connected to it in one
'So, support for the union had a price. We'd be struggling to make ends meet when big wage packets from these high productivity pits would be coming into every other house on the street. And we'd find ourselves unwelcome in the local Workingmen's Clubs (social clubs) which are controlled by working miners. This extends to Coalville's social club that is owned by the Labour Party, because the Party is, not unnaturally, led by miners in our town, and they are all scabs. Even the pubs became known as either 'scab' pubs or 'strikers'' pubs from very early on in the dispute.'
Despite these pressures, Coalville voted to obey union instructions. What the railworkers probably did not know at that time was how far management would go in pressuring them to spurn their principles. In the past ten months they have withstood:
- A closure threat in September which the local manager said would go ahead if the men did not start to shift coal 'first thing Monday morning'.
- Transport police raids on the homes of seven railworkers the same night as families first heard about the closure threat. The raids resulted in criminal charges of theft against three railworkers. One charge sheet listed a few clothes as the stolen property. The three were immediately sacked from British Rail, but active campaigning has since forced management to reinstate one, and two others are still appealing.
Two of the remaining four railworkers whose homes were raided were put on serious disciplinary charges by the BR Board in December. iors offering the more vulnerable workers jobs and by right if they shifted coal.
Rank and file leaders at the depot responded to each attack with appropriate action. were sent home for refusing to work their coal trains, they called the entire depot out on strike. on the other hand, made clear that if the Railworkers attend solidarity meeting in Coalville (DR) strike continued, the men would not get national backing for their action.
The depot returned to work, but decided that the best way to defend their members against victimisation and harassment was to take their case to the labour movement, especially other railworkers. Working closely with "The Dirty Thirty', as Leicestershire's striking miners are warmly called, Coalville leaders sought out public platforms, press coverage, financial support and solidarity from other trade unionists.
Today few major miners' support meetings are held where Coalville speakers are not on the platform. And the support they have won has increased as the pressures have mounted to shift the coal to the power stations, now that the supplies have reached danger levels.
But the extent of the support is primarily due to the efforts of the Coalville railworkers themselves. They have consistently demanded that national union leaders organise support for them, but they have not waited for the official seal of approval before acting. When the union fell short of what Coalville felt was needed on November 5, the depot organised a solidarity rally attracting over 100 railworkers from differrent parts of the country. This inspiring meeting showed Coalville railworkers that they were not on their own.
As support for the rally grew, the national executive of the NUR agreed to send a platform speaker. Railworkers welcomed his greetings on behalf of the Federation of both major rail unions, but he also faced angry questioning from members who felt the union was not doing enough for Coalville. Workers from nearby depots demanded the national leadership call for regional strike action to stop management's campaign of dirty tricks. As one freight guard put it, *You always say the members aren't ready to act. Well, we're saying today that it's down to you. You set the date, and we'll support the call.' 8
The situation at Coalville is duplicated many times over in other coal depots. However, unlike Coalville, rail depots in other divided coalfields are themselves often bitterly split down the middle. These divisions have allowed management to run roughshod over established working practices and conditions. In the Shirebrook depot in Nottinghamshire the harassment of loyal union members got so bad that the Federation agreed to the rank and file demand for an official regional 24-hour strike in October. Yet again this action was called off. Management quickly retreated on its most blatant attacks, once the widespread support for the strike was evident. First attempts to move scab coal
During the week before Christmas, the situation at Coalville changed dramatically. For the first time in 38 weeks, a coal train ran through the middle of town on its way to a nearby power station. The movement of scab coal was not unexpected. And the arrival of large numbers of police in the area indicated that it would occur soon. But most railworkers considered that the only way more coal would be shifted was by bringing in the army to load up convoys of army trucks. Already every conceivable truck in the area was being used in a vain attempt to cope with the loss of transport by rail - from small trucks owned by local farmers to the large lorries of the big haulage firms. during the week before the Christmas shutdown of the depot was insignificant. Two trainloads a day would only keep the power station ticking over for about two hours. But as Butlin explained: "The fact that a single coal train moved at all was important. It was a huge moral and propaganda victory for management. the lowest depths seen to date. They first tried to bribe a local signalman to stay home on full pay. This would allow them to bring in outside scab signalmen and get coal trains moving. The local signalman refused. So, the manager then decided that the signalman was 'mentally unstable' and unfit for duties. He was sent home pending a medical examination!
An immediate strike by signalmen brought the remaining work of the depot — shifting rock from a local quarry — to a standstill. The failure of national union leaders to call an immediate regional strike in protest against these outrageous tactics angered Coalville railworkers. But rank and file leaders at the depot have spent the Christmas shutdown making their own links with the other workers in the region to pressurise the rail Federation.
A strong lead by the union executive would get considerable support in the industry. meetings take regular collections for the miners. with the miners' railworkers hear about the victimisation of members supporting the miners, there is considerable anger about management's antics.
As the stakes in the struggle increase, these antics will get worse. Rail managers are using every opportunity to weaken union organisation. Unfortunately, they already have an opening in the industry with the existence of the Federation of Professional Railway Staff (FPRS). This is a 1,500-strong break-away union, set up by the scabs during the 1982 wave of strikes against productivity plans which shut down Britain's railways for a total of 51 days.
The founding platform of the FPRS states its opposition in principle to strikes. It has attracted a conservative layer of workers who think they can save the industry from government attacks if they unite with management. They fail to see their interests as workers are fundamentally opposed to the common
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claring that they welcome international support and solidarity from all quarters.
Such action must be stepped up in this, the most crucial, stage of the strike.