If you were to believe some media coverage recently, you would think that unions were about to ruin Britain. Last week the Telegraph published a list of “the union leaders about to ruin your life”, featuring me and those at the helm of the country’s other major unions.
There have been many articles like this, along with some very angry commentators on rightwing broadcast channels. They claim that on one hand, unions will be making unreasonable demands of the Labour government, while on the other, they’re bitterly divided over how to approach a Keir Starmer administration – to the point where TUC congress will be a hothouse of union militancy and unbridled anger.
This fantasy that has been concocted in the minds of corporate media editors is a fiction that ignores a boring truth: trade unions and their members and general secretaries are patiently and methodically setting about the task of getting the best deals they can for their members.
As the Guardian noted recently, even the International Monetary Fund has published a working paper recognising that weak unions mean massive income inequality and an increase in household debt. Rebuilding the bargaining power of workers, it has said, could tackle inequality and restore workers’ incomes.
It is the most normal and most important function of a trade union, as anyone with an iota of experience in these matters will tell you. So our union, the RMT, along with many others, is engaging with the government on various unresolved issues bequeathed by the Tories’ chaotic and vindictive approach to industrial relations. We will put any new proposals to our members. That is union democracy in action. What on earth is wrong with that?
More broadly during the election campaign, Labour made a number of promises that would be a step forward for working people, including my members in the transport and energy sectors.
They include the new deal for working people, which Labour has begun to progress, and the repeal of the 2016 Trade Union Act and the hated minimum service levels legislation.
In order to prevent a repeat of the P&O ferry scandal that shook the country, we are also engaged with ministers and civil servants to deliver Labour’s promise for strong mandatory employment protections in the ferry sector.
Labour’s rapid progression of legislation to nationalise the train-operating companies, spearheaded by the secretary of state for transport, Louise Haigh, has shown the government is acting decisively in the interests of passengers.
For all the concerns expressed over various aspects of this Labour administration, Starmer has begun to move forward in all these areas. So why the media circus and hullabaloo?
My personal belief is that the corporate media are worried Labour is beginning to make progress in settling disputes. Under the Tories, there were no real negotiations; only attempts to demonise trade unions for, again, doing the job that members pay dues for.
The different approach of the Labour government so far is a problem for those whose vested interests are against any advance of working people and for whom the Tories represent a natural home. It is telling that they would portray what should be the normal order of things – unions negotiating with employers and government to achieve contracts and legislation that benefit working people – as some kind of unchained radicalism.
The RMT is not affiliated to any political party, and we have some of the most capable and toughest negotiators in the movement. Regardless of which employer is in front of us or which party is in government, we put our case assertively.
But at the same time, we recognise the clear benefits for our members of a Labour government and the fact that a re-elected Tory administration would have been catastrophic for the country.
The trade unions refuse to be used as cover for attacks by the corporate media on the new Labour government. We stand independently on our own strengths, putting our own case for our members and a better society, and we want a robust but positive relationship with the government.
September will be the first TUC congress under a Labour government in 15 years. Instead of peddling scare stories about unions that bear no relation to the truth, the media should see the gathering as the vital voice that all workers need if we are to make the changes in society we want to see and encourage Labour in the right direction.
Mick Lynch is the secretary-general of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers
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