The strike was to be the first of three one-day actions called by the Amalgamated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) and the National Union of Rail, Maritime, and Transport Workers (RMT). Workers who belong to the RMT were prevented from going on strike by a court injunction instigated by the London Underground Limited (LUL), a government-run company. However, these unionists refused to cross picket lines set up by the drivers and joined pickets outside the signing-on depots. The degree of support for strike action was shown when RMT members voted by a 9-1 margin to strike.

The Labour Party government of Anthony Blair has been pushing a Private Public Partnership scheme, known as PPP here, in which responsibility for the infrastructure, including track, tunnels, stations, and rolling stock of the underground system is turned over to private capitalist enterprises on 30-year contracts. Privatization of Britain's rail system under the previous Conservative Party government--defended today by the Blair administration--has been a disaster for working people and faces growing opposition in the country after a string of train wrecks, which have killed and injured hundreds.

The unions are demanding the establishment of a joint working group to investigate safety standards and a prohibition on compulsory redundancies [layoffs]. At the Elephant and Castle station in South London, workers on the picket line hung a banner on the railings saying, "RMT & ASLEF, Striking for Safety." Only 8 percent of scheduled trains ran, with just 39 out of the usual 476 trains running during the morning rush hour.

At Seven Sisters station in North London, driver Trevor Penney said the importance of the strike was that it "highlighted the dangers of the Private Public Partnership scheme in relation to safety." Penney said that in his opinion the government would delay any decisions on the Underground until after the general election "because privatizing the tube [subway] isn't popular. The talks are just delaying tactics."

Dave O'Connell said he thought the strike was needed "to prevent the fragmentation of the Underground. If the private sector is in control, their duty to the shareholders will take preference over the interest of the workers." He thought the strike was solid and that "the court decision was a complete erosion of democracy. We had a vote of 9-1 in favor, and yet a completely unelected judge could ban the strike and also refuse an appeal."

He said he was not surprised by the role of the Labour government in allowing the court case to go ahead. "I never expected anything else," he stated. Pickets at the Northumberland Park station in north London said they were on strike because they did not want the tube to go the way of the rest of the railways.  
 
Mayor has own proposals
In addition to the unions, the government's plans for the Underground have been opposed by London mayor Kenneth Livingstone, who hired Bob Kiley, former chief of New York's subway and bus system, to be London's Transport Commissioner. Livingston, who described Kiley as "the world's most successful transport operator," is proposing to raise money to modernize the system by issuing government bonds.

Kiley has been in talks with Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport John Prescott since last November. Hoping to prevent a walkout, Prescott on the eve of the strike moved to place Kiley in overall charge of negotiations over the future of the tube.

Livingstone, a longtime Labour leader, defeated Frank Dobson, the Labour candidate backed by Blair, in the mayoral elections last May. He was expelled from the Labour Party for not ending his candidacy, but has since tried to mend relations with the government while maintaining support of the trade unions who backed his candidacy. This has meant compromising his views on how the London underground should be funded and stepping back from supporting the strike.

In a December 7 article in the Independent, Livingstone wrote that press reports saying he would join the picket lines "were entirely false" even while admitting that "London Underground's workers are clearly affected by all parts of the Private Public Partnership" proposal, and that the ballots they cast were "the largest majorities in favour of strike action in the Underground's history."

"Aside from the PPP," he wrote, "my working relations with the government have been excellent, with nothing more than the normal strains that are to be expected between any mayor elected by Londoners and the national government."

A recent survey by the Chamber of Commerce, showing that three-quarters of businesses in London opposed the government's privatization moves, has bolstered Livingstone's position in the dispute. In a regular TV program, "Ask Ken," Livingstone on February 6 said that he was not bothered by where private money would come from as long as the unified management of the underground remained intact and functioned efficiently.

ASLEF has now suspended future actions because the government agreed to set up a joint committee of the rail unions, LUL management, and Infracos--the consortium bidding for the LUL contracts. No agreement was reached on a unified workforce, redundancies, or adequate staffing levels, but the RMT forced LUL to withdraw all threats made against the unionists who supported the strike. The bosses had said they would place custodial sentences on union shop stewards and sue the union for damages. As a result of the court injunction, the RMT will be holding another vote to take joint strike action with ASLEF in March if the outstanding issues are not resolved.  
 
Rail crisis
The solidity of the walkout, and the confidence of RMT workers who ignored the court ruling banning their strike, comes in part out of the rail crisis triggered by the October 22 crash at Hatfield on the East Coast main line. There, a train carrying 156 passengers derailed, killing four and injuring 35.

Eleven months before the wreck inspectors from the maintenance firm Balfour Beatty checked the line and reported clear signs of corner gauge cracking, or wear along the top corner edge of the rail. They recommended to Railtrack, the company that owns the track and is responsible for its maintenance, that the track be replaced. The job was subcontracted to another maintenance firm, Jarvis, which delivered the track to the site in May. Balfour Beatty issued another warning in September but was told by Railtrack to "grind" the rails to prolong their life until the new track could be laid in November. The new track was still lying there when the crash took place in October. The train went off the tracks when the rails shattered into 300 pieces.

The Hatfield disaster took place a year after a fatal crash at Paddington, in west London, that killed 31 people--including both drivers--and injured 160, and led to the opening of a public inquiry. Before these crashes there was another in Southall, also in west London, in 1997, when seven people died and 151 were injured.

Sean Twomey, a solicitor for the families at Southall, said, "The rail companies' vested interests are preventing them from giving proper attention to safety. If their managers continue to ignore important aspects of safety there will be more disasters and more deaths on the railways."

The combined impact of the three crashes exposed a rail system in crisis. Since the Hatfield derailment there has been a change in the way workers view these so-called accidents. It has become unacceptable to blame rail workers, and "safety before profits" has become a popular slogan.

The joint RMT/ASLEF leaflet handed out during the Underground strike pointed to these concerns and the reason workers were taking action. The government moves to privatize the Underground would mean "proposals could be put in place," the union flyer said, "which tube staff believe will increase the chances of a Hatfield style disaster on the tube."  
 
 
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