Three Cheers for the Tube Station Workers

Brave staff break their own strike to rescue the New Year festivities while their 'leader' holidays in the sun.

I see from this morning’s papers that Bob Crow, the ‘leader’ of the RMT, has issued a Press Release describing the strike on New Year’s Eve as a ‘united and determined stand’. This statement might carry a little more credibility were it not for the fact that Crow is currently sunning himself in Egypt, thousands of miles from the 4000 station workers he is supposed to represent.

These workers in turn have earned a huge debt of gratitude from all Londoners by turning up for work on New Year’s Eve in defiance of their union leaders. I may not know much about union politics, but I recognise Crow – he is a fat, blundering pantomime villain and he has hopefully made his last turn on our stage. When you call a strike and nobody pays it any mind, you have lost the confidence of your members.

Millions of Londoners were absolutely dismayed by the prospect of a New Year’s Eve Tube Strike. Personally I have a champagne socialist’s instinct in these matters and always like to see a union sticking it to the odious fat cats who mismanage our country… but the idea of a strike designed to ruin New Year’s Eve sent me only one signal. Their union is balloting them with idiotic proposals.

The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers has a long, proud history and represents upwards of 70,000 essential workers in this country. During the dispute, station staff were quite rightly hailed as ‘heroes’ by Mr Crow, who cited the events of July 7. In fact, the heroism of tube staff is of the more everyday kind. They keep our tubes clean, safe, and functional, a daily miracle for which 10 million passengers are typically ungrateful.

This ‘Almost Strike’ has certainly made us appreciate those 4000 station staff whose brave blacklegging rescued our festivities. If it had been carried through, the results would have been a disaster for the union and everybody representing it, crushing all vestiges of public support and leading thousands of member to defect.

This columnist wanted to hug the tube staff at her station as she rolled back from Hackney at 9 in the morning on New Year’s Day. The city owes these people a huge debt of gratitude, not just for the party at the weekend, but for their daily work. I hear a lot of grumbling about big fat pay packets and short hours but they deserve every penny. Imagine herding sarcastic, smelly cattle day and night without the aid of an electric prod.

According to their schedules, the RMT’s next priority is a second strike on this coming weekend. In reality, I think they’ll be more concerned with repairing their strategy.

A million thanks from Londoners to Tube Workers. Boo and hiss to the RMT leadership. And three cheers for good old Ken Livingston whose words I shall leave you with:

"I want to pay special tribute to the police, emergency services and transport workers who helped get hundreds of thousands of people home safely. The Tube strike hardly materialised. The majority of London Underground staff did not agree that it made sense to punish ordinary Londoners on New Year's Eve."

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