“Support for working people isn’t just for the statute book; it is something that a Labour government should live and breathe in everything it does.”
By Maryam Eslamdoust, TSSA General Secretary
We celebrate this May Day only months after the passage of the Employment Rights Act. While my union would prefer some of the measures in it to be stronger, it represents a clear and historic advance for workers, turning the tide on decades of anti-union laws. As consultations on the new legislation are published, we will be pushing to ensure that it delivers on Labour’s manifesto commitments and the New Deal for Workers.
But, crucial as they are, the passage of laws, development of regulations, and more equitable procedures for trade union access and recognition are only a part of the struggle. While they define the terrain, they do not end the fact of attacks on workers’ jobs, pay, conditions, and pensions, or the continued need for our movement to fight for the rights and dignity of working people
Yes, we need a Government that implements stronger legal protections for workers, but it must also stand with those workers in struggle. And where it has obligations to them as their employer, it should ensure that the letter and spirit of the pro-worker laws it passes are reflected in their treatment.
That is not the reality my members face in the transition to Great British Railways (GBR).
TSSA has strongly supported public ownership of the railways since they were privatised in the 90s. We back the creation of GBR – although public ownership should also extend to rolling stock, freight, and the Open Access companies – and a transition that puts the workers who keep Britain moving at its centre.
The transition we have been presented with has done anything but. We have faced the threat of thousands of job losses, attacks on travel facilities, uncertainty over pensions, a lack of transparency and, despite the Employment Rights Act, even derecognition of trade unions in publicly owned businesses, like Network Rail’s Platform 4, in advance of the movement to GBR.
In the run-up to last year’s Spring fiscal event, anonymous sources at the Department for Transport briefed that there could be thousands of job losses because of what they wrongly describe as “duplication” of roles, as Train Operating Companies and Network Rail merge. After we challenged DfT officials, we were assured there was no truth in this.
Fast forward 9 months, and because of so-called efficiency cuts, Network Rail is now facing 870 job losses. In Southeastern, where Network Rail and the Train Operating Company have merged in an “alliance” in anticipation of GBR, we are also seeing a threat to jobs. All this is justified by spending constraints and apparent value for money.
Despite an insistence that austerity is over, it doesn’t feel that way for transport workers. For this Spending Review period, DfT has had its day-to-day budget slashed by 5% and its investment budget cut by 1% (all while we see even louder calls for higher military spending at the MoD). Ministers may point to the investment in Northern Powerhouse Rail, but this does not start in earnest until the 2030s, and new lines are not due for construction until the 2040s. It’s jam tomorrow, cuts today.
Far from slash-and-burn job losses, we are clear that investing in Britain’s transport system should be an integral part of any strategy for growth, meeting our climate objectives, and connecting communities. In a context where we should be expanding railway capacity to do this, it is obviously wrong to impose job losses. The opposite is true; we need more jobs in rail, not fewer. That is why we will be fighting these cuts with everything we have – to defend our members and ensure we have the workforce needed to plan, build, and maintain a railway fit for the 21st century.
Support for working people isn’t just for the statute book; it is something that a Labour government should live and breathe in everything it does. It is not coherent for Government Ministers to trumpet the virtues of their reforms to employment rights while implementing lay-offs and cuts in the publicly owned companies for which they are responsible.
This May Day, then, I am mindful that it’s necessary, but not enough, to fight for our legal rights and protections; trade unionists must also continue to struggle and organise for the world we want to see: good, green, unionised jobs, investment in our public services and infrastructure, and an economy that puts workers first.
- Maryam Eslamdoust is TSSA General Secretary. You can follow her on Twitter/X and the TSSA on Twitter/X.
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