The prevailing economic malaise in the UK has fostered a breakdown in industrial relations, with workers in the railways sector choosing to demonstrate their unhappiness in a series of walkouts and strikes this summer. RMT (National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers) , responding to proposed changes in working practices such as flexible rostering, the replacement of the final-salary defined-benefit Railways Pension scheme, a three-year pay freeze, and a programme of redundancies (supported by a government-funded Voluntary Severance scheme), organised a ballot of some 40,000 members in May 2022. Union members voted to take on the Department of Transport and the Rail Delivery Group, which represents Network Rail and 13 English train operating companies.
The RMT union announced plans for 24-hour walkouts on National Rail on 21, 23 and 25 June 2022, while members of ASLEF (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen), representing train drivers, planned strikes on other days . An additional London Underground walkout was scheduled for 21 June, in a separate dispute between the RMT and Unite unions with Transport for London concerning flexible rostering and night work, a pay freeze, changes to pension arrangements, and the loss of 500 to 600 jobs that will not be backfilled upon becoming vacant. Passenger traffic will inevitably suffer, both commuters travelling to work and casual travellers, and the volume of freight transport is likely to drop, despite being prioritised by the government. Besides, the strikes will coincide with popular musical and sporting events such as the Glastonbury Festival, pop concerts, and athletics events, as well as school exams. The strikers will include onboard and station staff, control room and signalling staff, and rail maintenance workers, many of whom are not as well paid as implied in certain sections of the media.
In the years leading up to the current spate of industrial activity, rail services have undergone a steady process of dehumanisation, affecting all areas of service delivery. It is indeed quite possible to travel on a train without encountering a single member of the rail staff. Digital ticketing, online booking, and contactless, pay-as-you go travel passes have reduced the need for ticket office staff. Automatic ticket barriers have made manual ticket checkers redundant. Driver-only trains and driverless trains, in conjunction with Automatic Train Protection systems, reduce the human element in train operation, while robots and drones can take over inspection and maintenance.
In the UK, the tradition of going on strike to secure political concessions dates back to the reign of Queen Victoria, starting with the Chartist movement in 1842. In late Victorian times, specific portions of the workforce went on strike in protest against their working conditions, starting with match girls (1888) and dockers (1889). The dockers were then joined by railway workers and miners during the Great Unrest of 1910 to 1914, while shipbuilding and engineering became the target of industrial disputes during the Red Clydeside period of 1915 to 1920.
In the aftermath of the Great War, economic pressures on the coal mining industry prompted mine owners, in June 1925, to propose lengthening the working day from 7 to 8 hours while reducing wages by 13 percent. Over a million coal miners went on strike for nine days, between 4 May and 12 May 1926, setting up the first and only general strike in Britain, as they were joined by workers in the transport, construction, light industry, electricity, gas, and iron and steel sectors. Not only did the strikers fail to obtain any concessions from the mine owners, but the ensuing Trade Disputes Act 1927 even banned mass picketing and sympathy strikes.
The 1970s saw a major revival of labour unrest, during which successive governments took on the demands of the trade unions in a game of cat-and-mouse, while flirting unsuccessfully with incomes policies. The Industrial Relations Act 1971 outlawed the closed shop, made ballots compulsory before strikes, and set up an Industrial Relations Court to adjudicate on any potential violations of agreements, only to be scrapped in 1974, as a new Labour government established a Social Contract with the unions.
The miners’ strikes of 1972, 1974, and 1984 to 1985 coincided with declining coal reserves and a growing fractiousness in labour relations, which heralded the end of the National Union of Mineworkers. The 1970s culminated in the Winter of Discontent, from November 1978 to February 1979. which was marked by a series of around 2,000 strikes, involving car industry workers, lorry drivers, railwaymen, and public sector workers such as ambulance drivers, nurses, grave diggers, and waste collectors. Sights of uncollected rubbish and reports of overflowing mortuaries led to the downfall of the Labour government, ushering in Thatcherism and a period when the unions took a serious battering. Trade unions may have lost their influence in the world of politics, but strikes haven’t gone away, being embarked upon by diverse groups over the years, including print workers (1986-1987), firefighters (2002), public sector workers ((2011), and junior doctors (2016), to give a few scattered examples.
In the current difficult economic climate, employee-management relations are prone to breakdown and then turn adversarial. This is not unexpected, given the differing priorities of the conflicting sides. Employees are mainly concerned about job security, working conditions and work-life balance, levels of pay, promotion prospects, pension entitlements, and health and safety in the workplace. Managers, who control the purse-strings, are focused on efficiency, productivity, financial viability, and profitability to bet balance costs against revenues. Entrenched workplace practices can be further challenged by new and disruptive technologies, such as automation and artificial intelligence. Adversarial relations with the workforce can prompt responses from employees, in the form of walkouts, lockouts, and strikes, while employers can resort to punitive actions such as fines, layoffs, and redundancies. Ultimately, governments can redraft existing laws or introduce new anti-union legislation to further deter further strike action.
Strikes represent a breakdown in industrial relations, resulting from differing priorities of the conflicting parties and a power imbalance within their organisations, which is further accentuated by information asymmetries, which allow employers to understand the financial health of their organisations far better than their employees. Strikers seek to protect their jobs, pay, and pensions in the absence of other negotiating tools, even as they enrage others who rely on their services for their livelihoods. On the other hand, employers’ pursuit of “value for money” by reducing staff costs, which amounted to 30 per cent of total costs for the rail sector in 2019/2020, often translates into pay cuts, job cuts, and smaller pensions, as a smaller number of staff work flexibly, sometimes over longer hours, providing “system-wide resilience”. Individual contracts, tailored to specific jobs, may eventually come to replace collective bargaining with trade unions over the longer term, with performance-related pay meant to reward staff productivity. It would seem logical, however, that any organisation’s interests are best served when employer and employee objectives are reasonably aligned, guided by the financial information needed to enable shared decision-making, in a process of management by consensus rather than management by right. It is not clear whether this applies to Britain’s rail industry at present. Either way, it will be a hapless public that directly feels the brunt of any strike action rather than those who are its intended targets. Just as workforce issues are ironed out, we look forward to the promise of the Great British Railways, hoping for affordable fares and a better customer experience, with trains that are clean, punctual, and not overcrowded, overseen by a happy workforce, duly recompensed for its efforts.
Ashis Banerjee