By Fay Barrett
-28 July 2022
Mohammad Yasin visited striking RMT worker picket lines in Bedford yesterday, the same day that Labour front bencher Sam Tarry was sacked by Keir Starmer for attending a London protest.
Mr Yasin, Labour MP for Bedford and Kempston, visited the picket lines outside Bedford Train Station with members of Bedford & District Trade Union Council (BDTUC) on Wednesday 27 July. He went to show his, “support for the rail workers who have a very strong democratic mandate to strike over pay, safety and working conditions.”
This came on the same day as Labour party leader, Keir Starmer, sacked Shadow Transport Minister, Sam Tarry, for attending the RMT protest at Euston station.
In a statement yesterday, about the Tarry sacking, Labour said: “This isn’t about appearing on a picket line. Members of the front bench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed front bench positions.
“As a government in waiting, any breach of collective responsibility is taken extremely seriously and for these reasons Sam Tarry has been removed from the front bench.”
Frontbencher Tarry had been told by Starmer to stay away whereas Mr Yasin said he was not told he could not attend a picket line.
Mr Yasin said he supported, “Keir Starmer’s actions to ensure collective responsibility.” He said: “Labour needs to be a credible Government in waiting and it’s always been the case, if you’re a front bench minister on either side of the House that you don’t make up policy on the hoof without consulting colleagues.”
He added: “Labour is a party of the working people” who would, “always stand up for workers and businesses”.
The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) called for strike action on 27 July to “secure a decent pay rise, job security and decent working conditions”.
According to a statement on the RMT website, “over 40,000 workers across Network Rail and 14 train operating companies” were expected to “walk out” yesterday.
In the statement, RMT General Secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the Train Companies have not offered us anything new.
“In fact, Network Rail have upped the ante, threatening to impose compulsory redundancies and unsafe 50% cuts to maintenance work, if we did not withdraw our planned strike action.
“The train operating companies have put driver only operations on the table along with ransacking our members terms and conditions.”
President of the Bedford and District Trade Union Council (BDTUC), Graham Tranquada, said of the strikes: “We fully support RMT members in their dispute to resist a pay offer which amounts to a pay cut and demands from the employers for job losses, worsening of working terms and conditions, including un-social hours and safety practises.
“It cannot be right that following years of austerity and pay freezes that RMT members are expected to pay for a crisis not of their making.”
Mr Yasin pointed to the disparity between the huge pay-outs made to rail company shareholders last year while employees took pay cuts.
He said: “Train companies paid out nearly £800m to shareholders last year before telling rail unions that employees must take a real-terms pay cut for them to stay afloat, whilst threatening passenger safety through merging specialising roles.”
He criticised Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, saying he was, “directly responsible for industrial relations” and was “tying himself in knots trying to blame Labour for the rail strikes instead of his own failures to prevent strike action.”
Mr Yasin further criticised the government saying, instead of, “listening to the genuine grievances of workers who feel very vulnerable and are struggling,” their response was to “reduce the right to withdraw labour to another divisive culture war.”
His message for the Conservative Government was simple: “get around the table and lead the negotiations with rail companies and Unions in good faith.”
He called the cost-of-living crisis, “a wages crisis”, saying, “too many workers can no longer make ends meet while working conditions are under threat and pensions are being eroded.”
Mr Yasin pointed out that workers strike as a last resort and said a Labour Prime Minister would have resolved the issues before leaving workers feeling like they had no choice.
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