It's official: strikes are back

Luton car worker

Standing on the picket line at the Vauxhall plant in Luton last month, you really got the feeling that the tide may at last be turning in favour of the working class. The mood of solidarity was almost tangible. Despite voting against action, AEEU members refused to cross TGWU picket lines. Just as impressive was the fact that over 6,000 Vauxhall workers at the Ellesmere Port plant struck for a second time in solidarity with their fellow workers in Luton.

What made this strike even more remarkable was the support shown by other workers. Lorry drivers and subcontractors bringing in components and supplies refused to cross picket lines. Even the bread man drove away from the picket line tooting his horn.

It is not just at Vauxhall. Over the last month several other strikes have driven a coach and horses through the Tory anti trade union laws. A weeklong unofficial strike by 2,000 postal workers in Oxford won an important victory against their bullying bosses. But the most important of all was the 24-hour strike which shut down London Underground last month.

Both Aslef and RMT members voted massively in favour of striking against tube privatisation. However, a high court judge still deemed the RMT strike ballot illegal. But instead of Aslef striking alone, thousands of RMT members refused to cross its picket lines. In a magnificent display of confidence, RMT members held official strike placards which had been adapted to read 'RMT unOFFICIAL PICKET LINE'. The unity meant that over 93 percent of trains did not run.

At Golders Green Bob Crow, the deputy general secretary of the RMT, and Mick Rix, the general secretary of Aslef, stood on the picket line together. A shocked London Underground management threatened to take the RMT to court. Aslef officials walked out of the negotiations and threatened that unless the court action against the RMT was dropped a second strike would take place. Just 12 hours later management agreed not to sue the RMT!

The dispute is far from over. The government is in a deep hole over its plans for privatising London's tube network--the RMT is already holding a second strike ballot, and more strikes could be on the way.

There are also signs that workers are going on the offensive. As a direct result of the fight on the tube, all three rail unions are launching a campaign to get Railtrack renationalised. An unofficial strike by postal workers belonging to the CWU in York not only demanded the reinstatement of a suspended workmate but the sacking of a local manager.

It is important not to overstate this growing militancy. The vast majority of strikes still only last one day, and, with the exception of the CWU, most workers still lack the confidence to act independently of their union officials. However, things are developing at a rapid rate. Even the media recognise this.

One Radio 4 interviewer said, 'This new wave of strike action seems to have come out of thin air.' At one level this seems to be true. There hasn't been a major strike that has beaten the bosses and given confidence to other groups of workers to fight. But this ignores the growing bitterness with New Labour and the multinational companies that has developed in Britain over the last few years.

Political unrest with New Labour came to the surface at last year's union conferences. Bectu, the CWU, the FBU and the RMT all debated disaffiliating from the Labour Party. Earlier this year Unison strikers at the Dudley Group of Hospitals announced that they were going to stand a Socialist Alliance candidate in the general election. The massive anti-capitalist struggles in Seattle and the militant strikes in France have shown that the multinational corporations aren't all-powerful. This growing political radicalisation both in the unions and the wider movement is beginning to feed into working class struggle.

Another key development is taking place at the top of the British trade union movement. For the last 15 years union leaders have been doing their utmost to stop workers fighting. But recently officials have on a number of occasions encouraged workers to fight and also given a 'nod and a wink' to unofficial action.

Pressure from below alone does not fully explain why the union leaders are willing to organise and encourage resistance. Some union officials sense that New Labour is vulnerable, and that concessions can be extracted from the Blair government. The huge public outcry against privatisation has given confidence to the PCS and IPMS unions, which represent the air traffic controllers, to hold an indicative strike ballot, and this mood has also encouraged the rail unions to take on New Labour. They will feel that their strategy has worked because major gains were won after just one day's strike.

The belief that New Labour cannot be beaten in the general election means that some sections of the bureaucracy have been prepared to sanction strike action in the run-up to the election, something they certainly were not prepared to do in 1997.

The second major problem the union leaders face is that the destruction of Britain's manufacturing industries goes on unabated. Job losses keep piling up. Apart from the Vauxhall announcement, thousands of jobs are under threat in Scotland's dockyards, and Corus has announced 6,000 job losses at its steel plants. This puts massive pressure on union leaders. If Corus gets away with its closure programme, the ISTC (the union which represents steelworkers) will have lost a major part of its membership base. It is precisely under these circumstances that a right wing union leadership like the ISTC can be forced to lead a fight. Once again, it would be unwise to exaggerate the move to the left inside the trade union bureaucracy. For instance, Tony Woodley (the TGWU's chief negotiator in the car industry) is only willing to call limited action to save Vauxhall, and Aslef officials did suspend their action as soon as the first whiff of a compromise was put on the negotiating table.

Over the coming months, New Labour looks set for a rocky ride. The dispute at Vauxhall will continue to rumble. The privatisation of London Underground is a hot potato, and there is a very strong chance that a major confrontation between Royal Mail and the CWU will take place as New Labour attempts to privatise the Post Office. Whatever the outcome of these battles, the bitterness with New Labour looks set to continue.