THE RMT has revealed that the private rail companies war on the rail trade unions is being financed by the UK government, who are determined to break the rail unions as an example to other unions that they had better kowtow or else.
20,000 railway workers walked out on Saturday in a long running dispute over working conditions, job security and pay, in an industry that faces the threat of mass sackings and the 100% closure of all current British rail ticket offices.
On the same day that there was a national strike on the railways, the private rail companies were being indemnified against any losses to the tune of £1bn.
The rail companies are being encouraged by the government to take on the unions, with their losses from the strike action covered by a taxpayer-funded indemnity. The rail privateers are being paid by the government to break the rail unions, to create the conditions where the TUC will completely surrender to the bosses.
The decision to close ticket offices as part of a cuts programme will only save around £89m – a tiny fraction of the £1bn spent by the government to artificially keep the dispute going and prevent a settlement.
Between March 2020 and September 2022, rail companies made £310 million in taxpayer-funded profits – again dwarfing any potential cost savings from closing 1,000 ticket offices and cutting over 2,000 station staff posts.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch commented: ‘The public is being ripped off not only to financially underwrite this dispute that could have been settled 18 months ago but also to fund the closure of ticket offices which they rely on.
‘Closing 1,000 ticket offices will only save a small fraction of the money spent on rail company indemnity to prolong the strike and the handsome profits they have made.’
The RMT revealed: ‘Not only are ticket office closures being used as a fig leaf for the wholesale de-staffing of stations but this is the thin end of a wedge for getting rid of staff across the railway network – something our union will oppose vigorously.
‘The elderly, vulnerable and disabled will no longer want to and in some cases be unable to use the railway because no trained and friendly staff are waiting to assist them.
‘Our union remains wholly committed to reaching a negotiated settlement on pay, jobs security and conditions.’
Lynch concluded his statement, saying: ‘But our members remain steadfast in their industrial action and will not be cowed into submission by anyone.’
The total annual cost of a ticket office worker’s job, including salary, National Insurance Contributions and Employer’s contribution to the Railways Pension Scheme is around £30,000. 2,300 jobs are at risk under the employers’ proposals, totalling a saving of £69 million.
The TOCs’ (Train Operating Companies) annual management fees are estimated at around £110 million. The government has not updated information on its fee payments since September 2021, but RMT produced forecasts on the basis of payments made.
Historically, the TOCs have taken at least 65% of their profits before tax out in dividend payments and invest almost nothing in the railways.
The cost of indemnifying the TOCs against the loss of ticket revenue is likely to be almost £1 billion now.
In May, the Daily Mail claimed to have seen ‘internal industry analysis’ estimating the direct cost as £900 million, since when there have been four further days of action by the RMT.
RMT’s analysis of the private TOCs alone (discounting LNER, Northern and Southeastern) gives a figure of £725 million.
The Tory government and the TOC’s are determined to smash the rail trade unions, while the the rest of the TUC trade unions look on, full of fear that they will be next. In this crisis situation the old trade union battle cry, ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’ must be put into practice.
There must be an immediate meeting of the TUC General Council to put forward a resolution to call a general strike to support the rail workers by bringing this reactionary but weak Tory government down.
Only a Workers Government that nationalises the banks and the major industries and puts them under workers’ management in a planned socialist economy can defend the jobs, the wages and the futures of the rail workers and the whole of the British working class.
