Pathetic railway bosses give into strike bullies while claiming huge bonuses – why won’t the government enforce the law?
THE defeat of trade union militancy in the 1980s showed Margaret Thatcher at her most resolute.
“You can never give in to blackmail. You can never give in to a strike that makes impossible demands,” she said defiantly at the end of the miners’ dispute.
But Mrs Thatcher would not have won without changing the law.
Determined to avoid a repeat of the dark days of the 1970s, when the country was regularly brought to a halt by frequent union walkouts, she passed a barrage of legislation to curtail the antics of the bully boys.
Among the steps that quelled the anarchy in the workplace were restrictions on picketing, tighter rules on strike ballots and protections for the right to work.
Tragically, the lessons of the 1980s are being forgotten in too many of our public services, where the intransigent unions are now ruthlessly exploiting the weakness of the embattled Tory Government and the cowardice of employers.
READ MORE RAIL NEWS
The toughness of the Thatcher era has evaporated, replaced by a culture of submission.
Offensive whingeing
This week, following 18 months of turmoil on the railways caused mainly by the hard-left RMT, the train drivers’ union Aslef has started nine successive days of industrial action, including an overtime ban and five days of strikes.
The walkout aims to crank up pressure for a big pay rise, even though drivers earn a basic salary of nearly £60,000.
There are also rumblings that NHS consultants, having just rejected an offer of 11 per cent, may down stethoscopes again, despite the fact their average earnings are £128,000.
Most read in The Sun
Given their pay levels, the whingeing of these two groups could hardly be more offensive.
These are privileged aristocrats of the subsidised workplace, not down-trodden members of the oppressed proletariat.
Millions of commuters and NHS patients have far lower salaries, yet they have to put up with never-ending disruption from these greedy merchants of mayhem.
What adds to the aggravation is the reluctance of the employers to take on the unions, who all too often are allowed to dictate how organisations are run during strike days.
That just emphasises how the militants now enjoy power without responsibility.
Managerial feebleness is particularly glaring at the 18 rail companies involved in the industrial action, which even refuse to use the legal tools they have been given to lessen the misery.
Last year, the Government passed legislation that stipulated that in certain crucial sectors such as transport, the unions have to provide a minimum level of service during a strike.
On the railways this minimum guarantee is set at 40 per cent of the normal service, yet neither Aslef, led by general secretary Mick Whelan, nor the RMT are providing anything like this during the present chaos.
Pathetically, the rail operators have done nothing to enforce the law.
While the public suffers, the managers cower and the bullies take charge.
Just one company, the publicly run LNER, tried to impose a minimum service guarantee but quickly retreated when Aslef threatened five extra days of stoppages.
Yet these bosses, supine in the face of union aggression, are not so hesitant when it comes to pocketing lavish bonuses.
Despite presiding over an industrial relations shambles, and the cancellation of numerous services, many of the rail bosses have kept the gravy train rolling.
At Arriva, for instance — which runs London Overground, Chiltern, Cross Country and Central — the highest paid executive received a 61 per cent annual increase in pay and perks while there was a 54 per cent overall increase in directors’ earnings at the company.
Similarly, last year bonuses of £1.3million were shared by chiefs at FirstGroup, which runs Avanti West Coast, Great Western Railway, South Western Railway and TransPennine Express.
In 2022 another £540,000 bonus went to the then chief executive of the Go-Ahead Group, which runs Great Northern, Thameslink, Southern and Gatwick Express.
Given that the railways are still a heavily subsidised public service, the Government should use its cash leverage to ensure the law is upheld and the rewards for failure are ended.
Indeed, Tory ministers could go much further through two additional measures.
One is to end the unique legal immunity that unions enjoy from claims for damages arising from their actions.
No corporations or individuals enjoy such a privilege.
A few class action lawsuits by disgruntled commuters would soon lessen the militants’ enthusiasm for disruption.
The other would be to remove the right to strike from key public workers.
Strengthening unions
After all, police officers, prison staff and Armed Forces personnel cannot strike, so why should doctors, train drivers and nurses be allowed to do so?
Sadly, with Labour looking likely to win the next election, the next government will probably move in the opposite direction, giving more rights to the unions and repealing much of the Tories’ legislation.
Indeed, Sir Keir Starmer, who describes himself as a “proud trade unionist”, has already pledged to repeal the minimum service guarantee within the first 100 days of taking office.
His deputy Angela Rayner, a former senior Unison official, is even keener on strengthening the role of the unions.
“If I get to be Deputy Prime Minister, I won’t let you down”, she told the TUC last September to thunderous cheers, adding that Labour “will work hand-in-hand with the unions.”
Earlier this month, there was a worrying portent of things to come when, on the eve of yet another RMT strike on the London Underground, the city’s Labour Mayor Sadiq Khan suddenly found a pot of money — claimed to be £30million — from which to make a more generous offer.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
That was not shrewd negotiation.
It was naked surrender — and there will be much more of that under a Starmer government as Margaret Thatcher’s work is undone.