For a better service, support the Tube strikes!

Now that my official title is "trade unionist Vicky [sic] Morris" I thought I would say a few words about why I think people should support the London Underground strikes, and in defence of trade unions generally.

Trade unions have been the bedrock of the movement for democracy in this country. One of the first campaigns for universal (male!) suffrage was the working-class Chartist movement. One of their key aims was to organise a general strike for democracy!

Trade unions have fought for every measure that has civilised work - the 10 hour day, abolition of child labour, health and safety regulations - and been resisted most of the way by their employers. When middle-class reformers have pushed for welfare provision, it has usually been as a means to head off more radical solutions to social problems: working class revolt.

Today trade unionists on the London Underground are on strike to defend 800 jobs. In many ways this is a selfish strike - they want to keep their jobs. These are not cushy jobs, in spite of what the Metro will tell you. But they are decent jobs, and the alternative is to go onto the job market in a climate of high employment.

But in many ways this is also an unselfish strike: London Underground with fewer staff will be a worse service. Ticket offices will be closed more often; there will be fewer staff around to help you buy a ticket, give you directions, or intervene if there is trouble on a station.

What other means do Tube workers have to fight their cause than to withdraw their labour? The best thing passengers can do to defend the service is support the Tube workers' strike, and get the London Underground management and GLA to stop their job cuts proposal. Lobby your MP and GLA member (maybe not Brian Coleman, alas, as your words really would be falling on deaf ears, or Richard Barnbrook, for all the obvious reasons).

The Tory group on the GLA walked out rather than hear a motion against the job losses proposal in July. This issue will be revisited soon. Even Boris Johnson has said he worries that the government's deficit reduction plan is trying to cut too much too fast.

Join the campaign against job losses on London Underground

The RMT and TSSA unions representing London Underground station and ticket office staff and some drivers have voted to take strike action. They are resisting the proposed cutting of 800 jobs - cuts that will lead to ticket office closures and a worse service for the travelling public.

Inevitably, the press will go into overdrive berating these workers for not going gently (accepting job cuts) and for defending the quality of the public service that keeps this city running. Don't the people that write these reports ever use public transport?

The first in a series of one-day strikes starts at 9pm on Monday night, 6 September. The unions are inviting people who support them to visit picket lines - early on Tuesday morning, 7 September, from 5.30am (yes, Tube workers start work that early) till 10am, and again from 12noon till 5pm. And if you don't want to support them, but want to go and harangue them, I'm sure they are tough enough to take that as well. They are used to dealing with the public!

Picket lines in Barnet will be at High Barnet, East Finchley, and Archway stations. Email info@barnettuc.org.uk if you would like more details.

Support the Tubeworkers to support your Tube service

So the RMT Tube workers have voted for strike action against job losses - 800 planned across the network, particularly affecting ticket offices and leading to many closures.

As a friend of mine said to me last night, prepare for a wave of anti-Tubeworker bigotry in the press. The point lost on papers such as the Evening Standard is that fewer Tubeworkers means a worse service. When Tubeworkers go on strike to defend their jobs, they should have the support of the public.

If the public were to contact TfL or their local MPs, or the Mayor of London, or the government to protest against the planned job cuts, perhaps they would not go ahead. Perhaps the government would find other ways to save money, and preserve the service.

It's a service that the whole of London, business particularly, benefits from. Why can't we unite to make it better? Answer: we can.

To find out some more background, and hear the Tubeworkers' case, visit the Staff Our Stations website of the RMT union, and prepare to back the Tubeworkers. The RMT - it's not just Bob Crow, you know (although it is partly Bob Crow!).