Editorial: This Tube strike is self-defeating in the extreme
When Ukrainian citizens are sheltering in underground stations, it can at best seem glib, or heartless, to complain about our own trivial woes. A tube strike is a trivial woe; some will work from home when the RMT go on strike today, some will walk a little further than usual, some may even try getting in a different way (who knows – somebody might even use the cable car for something other than novelty amusement).
It’s worth remembering what this particular tube strike is about. The first is a change in staffing patterns at Transport for London, with the financially-battered organisation looking to shed six hundred station posts. That plan, it should be noted, does not include job cuts: slightly more than 200 current vacancies will not be filled, and the rest of the headcount reduction will be achieved in time, TfL say, through natural attrition, with many station staff (as they have done for years) moving into the train ranks. The second frustration of the RMT is around a pensions plan that has not yet been decided upon, let alone imposed: a review, led by former trade union boss Sir Brendan Barber (not exactly known for his militant pro-business, anti-public sector stance), has yet to report.
This is bonkers. And self-defeating, too. London’s economic recovery sits on a knife edge. Those retailers that survived may be, for now, welcoming punters back in numbers not seen for two years – but they are also sitting on debt piles that are unforgiving and unrelenting. Each day’s lost trade is very bad news indeed. Tube strikes guarantee that.
The RMT may not care about those businesses, but they should care about London’s future. The fewer people moving around the city, the lower the fare revenue. The lower the fare revenue, the more actual job cuts. Continued industrial action by short-sighted, firebrand union leaders won’t just be bad for London, but for their members, too.