Critics of Sadiq Khan have dared to recommend that the last-minute caving in by the London Mayor to the transport unions, beneath menace of a four-day Underground stoppage, gives us a glimpse of what industrial relations would seem like beneath a future Labour authorities.
The twist within the plot is that Sadiq Khan appears to have claimed precisely the identical factor. The last-minute deal, by which more cash was miraculously retrieved from down the again of the City Hall couch, “shows what can be achieved by engaging and working with trade unions and transport staff, rather than working against them”. And by “working against them”, we would presumably embrace Khan’s personal place proper up till 20 minutes earlier than the strike was resulting from begin.
So with the Conservatives and Khan each claiming that the deal is precisely the type of factor that may occur often if Keir Starmer takes up residence in Number 10 later this yr, what conclusions can the remainder of us draw about Labour’s plans for remodeling industrial relations?
However cynical Khan’s eleventh hour take care of the unions would possibly look, for him it is good politics. He’s up for re-election in May and knocking on doorways whereas employees are nonetheless offended about not with the ability to get to work of a morning would hardly enhance his possibilities. The prospect of a Conservative mayoralty after May 2 may also have served to focus the minds of the commerce unions themselves.
Starmer will probably be simply as eager to current the case {that a} Labour authorities will mechanically imply an enchancment within the nation’s strike fee. One method to obtain this, after all, could be to provide in to their calls for for extra pay, however that route is more likely to be strongly resisted by Rachel Reeves, at present the shadow chancellor.
Unlike within the years instantly following Labour’s 1997 election victory, the subsequent Labour authorities won’t be presiding over a wholesome funds surplus and robust financial progress; can Khan’s post-Christmas largesse actually be replicated on a nationwide scale by a Labour authorities wanting to burnish its credentials for accountable spending?
There’s an odd (and unwelcome) parallel between Labour’s method to industrial relations and unlawful immigration. In each instances – strikes and small boats crossing the English Channel – the celebration’s answer is extra “engagement”, whether or not with the unions or with the French authorities. It’s good to speak, and politically the tactic is a handy one, for it could actually imply the whole lot or it could actually imply nothing. As a political technique it sounds believable and persuasive, particularly on the morning media spherical of TV and radio stations.
But because of Khan’s take care of the transport unions, we now see that dialogue is (or will be) merely a euphemism for give up. Most commerce union negotiators are skilled and cynical sufficient to recognise that “engagement” is fairly nugatory until the particular person you’re negotiating with comes alongside together with his chequebook.
That recognition won’t miraculously disappear with the arrival of a Labour authorities, nonetheless a lot the brand new chancellor opines about robust financial circumstances and nonetheless a lot she tries to pin the blame for such straitened circumstances on her predecessors. If the present batch of ministers are feeling the warmth from junior docs and practice drivers, the strain and expectation on their Labour successors will solely be higher.
Further, in a uncommon incidence of an precise coverage dedication, Keir Starmer has explicitly promised that the laws introducing minimal commonplace ranges for public companies throughout strike motion will probably be instantly repealed, eradicating one very important negotiating tactic from a future Labour authorities’s assets. He might have chosen to maintain the regulation on the statute books, if solely as an unused lever solely to be pulled in an emergency. But a celebration that depends on commerce union funding is aware of which facet its bread is buttered on.
The hazard is that this emphasis on dialogue over confrontation, nonetheless engaging it sounds to a nation weary of cancelled trains and docs’ picket strains, strikes precisely the flawed observe for the federal government’s interlocuters. On the small boats problem, improved dialogue with the French can have little influence on the numbers of unlawful immigrants until the UK facet has another plan to undertake a extra strong place within the occasion of a failure of negotiations.
Similarly, if the commerce unions know that with a view to get their manner, all they need to do is keep on with their weapons and proceed with their menace of creating commuters’ lives a distress, then a authorities that has voluntarily given up any negotiating energy is truthful recreation for cynical techniques.
Khan has proven us how a Labour authorities will take care of the unions. We ought to all be grateful for that.
