‘No one wants strikes. But I’m happy to stand on the picket line’

‘Travel misery’ won’t be over in south London any time soon. After a week of disruption on rail and the Tube, with airline strikes still to come, ANDREW FISHER, pictured left, appraises next week’s industrial action on Croydon’s Trams

After a week of disruptive rail strikes, Croydon’s tram services will shut down next week as drivers walk out on strike on Tuesday and Wednesday in a dispute over pay.

No go: the tram network faces shut-down by strikes next Tuesday and Wednesday

Last month, tram drivers voted 99.2per cent to strike, on a ballot turnout of 86per cent.

The workers are represented by the ASLEF trade union, which represents drivers on the tram network, railways and London Underground.

ASLEF organiser Finn Brennan said after the ballot result, “The ball is now in management’s court. They can either make a fair offer or face the prospect of hard-hitting and drawn-out strike action.”

Tram drivers had not received an offer by the time of the ballot, and even now have only been offered a measly 3per cent – less than one-third of the current rate of inflation.

Tramlink is part of Transport for London, but is run by the private transport corporation First Group. The company saw its profits increase sevenfold last year, to £642million; its chief executive is paid around £800,000 a year.

The tram network which runs from Beckenham Junction at its most eastern point to Wimbledon to the west carries around 30million passengers a year, and in just two decades has established itself as a vital part of south London’s transport infrastructure. It is estimated that the tram system has taken between 2 to 3million car journeys off the roads each year.

After a week of rail strikes, the industrial action on Croydon’s trams is another signpost of how workers across industries are refusing to accept that they should pay with their wages for the economic failures of the government and the profiteering of the corporations who control so much of our lives.

Workers at BT and Royal Mail are currently being balloted for strike action, as are TSSA union members at Network Rail, in a widening of the rail strikes. And British Airways workers look set to walk out on strike next month unless a decent pay offer is received. Teachers and local government workers have also threatened to take action unless pay meets inflation.

‘Miltant’ and ‘Lefties’, obviously: barristers in the Criminal Bar Association are staging four weeks of strikes

If you want to understand how unexceptional is the action taken this week by the so-called “militant” RMT railworkers’ union, then consider the Criminal Bar Association, which represents barristers: they begin four weeks of strike action from next week.

In the last week, the National Education Union has written to the Education Secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, to say that they will ballot their members for strike action unless the government does substantially better than the 3per cent pay offer that it has so far recommended.

Meanwhile Christine McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, the local government and health workers’ union, told delegates at her union’s annual conference to go back to their branches and be “strike ready”.

What unites all these struggles is the modest demand that wages should keep pace with inflation. With CPI inflation already at 9.1per cent – or 11.7per cent if your preferred measure is RPI – then anything below that means a real-terms cut in living standards.

Many Conservative MPs and bosses have claimed inflation-matching rises are unrealistic or would be unaffordable. But are they?

Take, for example, the rail strike, where the RMT is arguing for inflation-proofed pay rises for its 40,000 members. Even during the lockdown last year, the rail companies pocketed £500million in profit. That’s enough to give every single worker who was balloted an extra £12,500 – which would be a 40per cent pay rise.

Of course, the profiteering companies could also forgo some of that surplus that they enjoy to cut fares for rail passengers. But Conservative MPs and their pliant media argue its only workers who have to tighten their belts, not the fat cat bosses or shareholders.

£500m profits: but the rail companies say that they can’t afford wage rises for workers nor fare cuts for passengers

Here in Croydon, we were due to be in the middle of three weeks of strike action by refuse collectors in the Unite union, but that was averted at the 11th hour when contractor Veolia ponied up an 11.9per cent increase for the lowest-paid staff.

Suddenly, faced with the prospect of well-supported strike action, the employer found they could afford a decent pay rise for their workers after all.

Another argument deployed against workers and their unions is that meeting these modest pay demands (to simply keep pace with inflation) would start a “wage-price spiral”, pushing up inflation. Yet wages rises is not what is driving inflation. Wages are currently lagging inflation – sucking demand out of the economy, and putting us on the brink of recession.

If anything, we need greater wage rises to boost the economy and give workers not just the means to make ends meet, but to spend in the economy and keep the retail, leisure and hospitality industries afloat. Retail sales fell again in May, and the sector is struggling as falling real wages mean people tightening their belts.

No one wants strikes, but if that’s what it takes for workers to get a fair deal, then I’ll be happy to stand on the picket lines with them.

Some of Andrew Fisher’s recent columns:

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