Mark Harper, the latest Tory transport secretary, appeared on the BBC yesterday morning to claim that the government was not responsible for blocking any offers from train operators to the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union last week.
Attempting to present himself as the reasonable face of the Tory government, Harper stressed that he had been meeting with RMT leader Mick Lynch last week to ‘facilitate the process’ of coming to an agreement over the union’s demands for pay increases, jobs protection and improved conditions for rail workers.
However, Harper was insistent that the rail unions had to agree a ‘reform package’ before the Tories will agree to funding any pay increase.
In fact, The Daily Telegraph newspaper revealed at the weekend that sources close to the Treasury had confirmed the claim by the RMT that the government had blocked train operators from offering a pay increase.
The Telegraph reported that the Tories had vetoed proposals for a pay offer of between 8% and 9% over two years last Monday despite indicating 48 hours earlier that they would support a deal.
All pay offers must be signed off by the government which has overall responsibility for train operators’ finances since it bailed them out during the coronavirus pandemic.
The reason for this rapid reversal according to the Telegraph was the intervention of the Treasury, who opposed this offer on the grounds that a wage increase would encourage the tens of thousands of NHS nurses, university lecturers, teachers, and workers across the country who are taking action to protect their pay from a cost-of-living crisis spiralling out of control.
This, according to the Tory Treasury bosses, would drive up inflation and must be defeated at all costs.
This was made clear by Harper who insisted in an article in the Telegraph that although he was adopting a ‘conciliatory’ approach to the RMT, agreeing to meet Lynch in what the paper described as a return to the ‘beer and sandwiches’ charm offensive of the 1970s, there could be no question of striking workers getting an inflation level pay increase.
Harper wrote: ‘Irresponsible pay rises fuel inflation’ and that ‘any resolution must reflect the economic climate we are in’.
The economic climate of British capitalism is one of recession and inflation – neither of which are caused by workers’ pay increases.
Workers’ pay doesn’t cause inflation, on the contrary inflation is running at over 11% despite the fact that workers’ wages have been kept down over the past 12 years, with the lowest increases in pay ever recorded.
Central to Harper’s charm offensive with the RMT, is the determination by the Tories to force the union to accept thousands of cuts in jobs and conditions, including compulsory weekend working, under the guise of ‘reforms’. Such cuts are to make massive savings to the rail companies and the Tory subsidy that will more than make up the derisory offer of 4% a year for two years on offer.
Last week, Lynch applauded Harper for having ‘started a dialogue’ with the union, but RMT members will not be fooled by this charm offensive designed to ensnare the union leaders in pointless meetings and wear them down.
The Tories and the ruling class are preparing to sit out the limited strike action on the railways, postal and telecoms services and by NHS workers with soothing promises of entering into a dialogue with the unions backed up by the iron fist of all the Tory anti-union laws that threaten mass strike-breaking and huge fines for unions taking ‘unlawful’ strike action.
With the Tories and the bosses determined to make the working class pay for the capitalist crisis by driving them into absolute poverty, there can be no possibility of compromise on pay.
This is a fight to the finish and workers must demand their leaders take the only action that can secure the future of workers and their families by forcing the TUC to call an immediate general strike to bring down the Tories, replacing them with a workers’ government that will bring in a nationalised, planned socialist economy.
There is no other way forward!
