Support the railway workers
JVL Introduction
Ronan Burtenshaw, writing in Tribune, is crystal clear: The establishment campaign to demonise striking rail workers and their trade union has one aim: to discourage other workers from following their example and fighting back.
Grant Shapps’s propaganda about train drivers earning £59,000 while nurses are on £31,000 is designed to claim the strike is about preserving privilege. It is not.
Of course, Shapps knows that most train drivers aren’t even in the RMT but in Aslef. And he knows that the 40,000 workers on strike cover a wide range of jobs on the railway. And that their median salary is £31,000.
Support the strike. An RMT victory will embolden workers everywhere!
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And remember Keir Starmer’s 7th pledge:
Strengthen workers’ rights and trade unions
Work shoulder to shoulder with trade unions to stand up for working people, tackle insecure work and low pay. Repeal the Trade Union Act. Oppose Tory attacks on the right to take industrial action and the weakening of workplace rights.
This article was originally published by Tribune on Tue 21 Jun 2022. Read the original here.
Why the Establishment Hates the RMT
The establishment campaign to demonise striking rail workers and their trade union has one aim: to discourage other workers from following their example and fighting back.
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I wonder why Shapps chose to compare with nurses rather than hedge fund managers or with anyone else for that matter? Or government ministers? Because government ministers have such responsible positions? Really? The real tragedy is that the majority will take more notice of Grant Shapps than of the excellent Ronan Burtenshaw.
The other thing is – Mick Lynch is stunningly competent on the media – a joy to watch. Would that other trade union leaders, and Labour MPs could make such a good job of defending workers fighting to preserve jobs and living standards.
I know that I have had my say, but I couldn’t resist the temptation to echo Naomi’s thoughts.
What a breath of fresh air!
Whenever you hear people knocking Trade Unions, remind them that they almost certainly benefited from what Unions gained. Share this:-
Unions are the creation of the ‘Working Class’. They were created to stop the abuse by unscrupulous bosses using them as cheap labour for their own benefits. Over the years they have fought for and taken us from a life expectancy of 47, 10hrs a day, 6 days a week and on poverty wages, no sick or holiday pay and no Company pension, to a 37.5hr 5 day week, paid holidays, paid sick leave and Company pensions. They also fought against bullying bosses who take advantage. We now have a life expectancy of around 80.
Many earned enough to buy their own homes, having your own car, money to spend on leisure activities, taking your families on holiday, even going abroad.
OR THEY DID, until Thatcher brought in Anti Trade Union legislation that truly weakened them.
Now we are slipping back fast, we now have over 2 million families using food banks, multi millions living on poverty wages, 2 million on zero hour contracts or forced to go self employed, losing sick and holiday pay, plus no Company Pension. The pathetic minimum wage becoming the norm with an estimated 4 million on it.
A total of 14+ million living in poverty, 9 million of them working, some having 2 or 3 jobs just to get by.
It can only get worse under a Tory Government.
Only a Labour Government led by ‘TRUE’ Socialists will repeal these vicious, vindictive Laws, so that Our Unions can win back all those things they had fought so hard to gain.