second opinion - london tube
WORKERS, SEPT 2004 ISSUE
Whingeing like a market stall holder who has to pay his Saturday labour too much, Mayor Livingstone decided to blast the RMT and cross its picket lines if the gutter press needed him to. It would have been a classic photo opportunity.
Scared that the union's tough stance for a reduced working week for working in his dangerous tunnels will break the cosy "progressive coalition" of highly paid, self seeking individuals he has cultivated around himself for decades, the London mayor joined the long list of Labour politicians who condemn the workers when the chips are down — that is down in their opinion.
Organised workers, not "progressive coalitions", make history. We would all benefit from the job-creating proposals that the RMT offers in all humility.
Those Londoners hurrying to work their 70-hour weeks on the tube should reflect on how tube workers are trying to regain control of their working and waking lives — and start to do likewise.