In another setback for workers on Merseyside, the Transport and General Workers Union has negotiated a defeat for its taxi driving members and taxi users at Liverpool John Lennon Airport.
Though the union are claiming victory, it seems cab drivers at the airport will have to pay £1 every time they want to use the taxi rank, starting in February.
Last week, the TGWU announced that more than 500 of its members would take part in a ‘drive-slow’ around Speke on Friday 15th December, in protest at £7 per day fees demanded by Peel Holdings, who own John Lennon Airport.
At the time, union leaders accused airport owners Peel Holdings of "greedy profiteering" and called the fees "arbitrary, unfair and unrealistic".
The airport claimed the money would be used to improve facilities for drivers, and would cover a 'free' course on being an 'a Liverpool ambassador' during Capital of Culture year in 2008.
This was ridiculous, for two reasons. Firstly, if you have to pay for a course, it is clearly not free! Secondly, no one knows Liverpool better than cabbies, so they do not need any training in showing people round the city.
The airport had threatened to bring in private hire vehicles - effectively strikebreakers - to run the service if the taxi drivers refused to pay the fee.
JLA insisted it was one of the only airports in the country that did not charge, and needed to find ways of plugging the losses it suffers. But here they were clearly using the word 'losses' to mean additional profits they were missing out on. Last year, Peel Holdings bought Mersey Docks for £780 million, then sold a 49% stake in that company for £750 million - a huge markup. Their 2005 earnings were £100 million.
The drive-slow was called off at the last minute after a new plan to introduce a card-operated barrier to the taxi rank was agreed.
Kevin Maguire, the Transport and General Workers Union's representative who liased with the airport, said: "The details of how the barrier system is going to work and be implemented is still under negotiation. A number of meetings are planned for the new year to discuss the best way forward. We thought a permit system was unfair and restrictive as it would only have allowed a small number of hackneys. With a barrier, any hackney driver will be able to apply for a swipe card. It is likely that most drivers will pass the charge on to the customer."
So there we have it. If a driver picks up eight customers from the airport in one day, they will have to pay more than the £7 a day originally threatened. Extra costs will be passed onto the customers, who will in effect be putting their money into the pockets of Peel shareholders. Meanwhile, cabbies will have to put up with the nuisance of carrying the swipe cards.
This is yet another illustration of how the traditional trade union strategies are unable to meet the needs of workers. At best, leaders take the edge of attacks, negotiating bosses down slightly from their opening bids. At worst, they openly collude with business to earn knighthoods, seats in the House of Lords, or on corporate boards. Revolutionary workers’ organisations are needed, with the aim of abolishing the profit system and the vampiric boss class.
Last week, the TGWU announced that more than 500 of its members would take part in a ‘drive-slow’ around Speke on Friday 15th December, in protest at £7 per day fees demanded by Peel Holdings, who own John Lennon Airport.
At the time, union leaders accused airport owners Peel Holdings of "greedy profiteering" and called the fees "arbitrary, unfair and unrealistic".
The airport claimed the money would be used to improve facilities for drivers, and would cover a 'free' course on being an 'a Liverpool ambassador' during Capital of Culture year in 2008.
This was ridiculous, for two reasons. Firstly, if you have to pay for a course, it is clearly not free! Secondly, no one knows Liverpool better than cabbies, so they do not need any training in showing people round the city.
The airport had threatened to bring in private hire vehicles - effectively strikebreakers - to run the service if the taxi drivers refused to pay the fee.
JLA insisted it was one of the only airports in the country that did not charge, and needed to find ways of plugging the losses it suffers. But here they were clearly using the word 'losses' to mean additional profits they were missing out on. Last year, Peel Holdings bought Mersey Docks for £780 million, then sold a 49% stake in that company for £750 million - a huge markup. Their 2005 earnings were £100 million.
The drive-slow was called off at the last minute after a new plan to introduce a card-operated barrier to the taxi rank was agreed.
Kevin Maguire, the Transport and General Workers Union's representative who liased with the airport, said: "The details of how the barrier system is going to work and be implemented is still under negotiation. A number of meetings are planned for the new year to discuss the best way forward. We thought a permit system was unfair and restrictive as it would only have allowed a small number of hackneys. With a barrier, any hackney driver will be able to apply for a swipe card. It is likely that most drivers will pass the charge on to the customer."
So there we have it. If a driver picks up eight customers from the airport in one day, they will have to pay more than the £7 a day originally threatened. Extra costs will be passed onto the customers, who will in effect be putting their money into the pockets of Peel shareholders. Meanwhile, cabbies will have to put up with the nuisance of carrying the swipe cards.
This is yet another illustration of how the traditional trade union strategies are unable to meet the needs of workers. At best, leaders take the edge of attacks, negotiating bosses down slightly from their opening bids. At worst, they openly collude with business to earn knighthoods, seats in the House of Lords, or on corporate boards. Revolutionary workers’ organisations are needed, with the aim of abolishing the profit system and the vampiric boss class.
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ahem... [shameless plug]
20.12.2006 11:43
very true, but giving up entirely on unions is not the way. we need a different form of union that is openly revolutionary, does not act as a wooly wiberal mediator between bosses and workers, and does not pit workers against each other by separating their power between different trade unions.
what sort of 'organisation' might do this in the workplace? three letters: I W W.
gary
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22.12.2006 16:22
the question however is one of tactics and not our subjective attitude towards them.
we could ignore them,pray that they crumble and cease to exist
or blow smoke bubbles and hope their members transfer en masse to radical revolutionary unions, or on apractical level
we can seek to influence them in their politics day to day and overall strategy.
they remain like the labour party the bulwark of the government bulwark of blairism and bush to be precise .
they serve a purpose and they do it well they are the police of the wokers movement,labor lieutenants of capitalism, disciples of fre enterprise..etc but also a contradiction.
for although the top and leading layers are dead for the purposes of change the core is radical and the bulklow paid workers several million in britain, they are the revolutionary dynamite these vultures fear.
how you light the fuse is the question of questions ..forming rival groups or shouting and hurling epithets at them will not chage their course..
uniting people behind the correct ideas and building up the pressure will leave these gatekeepers and labor skates on the beach ..once turned from defensive to offensive these time servers betraying and selling out will vanish..they fear their skins and mortal souls first then their wallets..and servility is their compromise solution to everthing.
low paid labour casual employment on the rise cheaper labour coming daily from abroad how do unions deal with this elementary feature of capitlist competition..they join in the chauvinism of the government and refuse to organise immigrant workers and low paid preferring to defend english skills and craft prejudices turning their noses up at manual workers generally ...casuals being euphemism for foreign..
so what to do..both the t+gwu and gm+b both recently involved in potential big disputes that may disturb the prospects of another labour government under brown..more than ever the need to organise is upon us all the desire to overthrow these corrupt caste of officials and replace them with more representative institutions,is possible,ones that are more responsive to the needs of the people..we can learn lessons from
the great battle of the dockers 1995/7against casualisation a worlwide struggle, and others recently have had a great expereience of fighting the power of big business and the government although sold out by incoming blair this time however the government is very weak and the anti war movement is eroding the popularity of blair both here and Bush in the us ..the time for the final offensive is upon us..
only with a severe struggle and revolutionary fight will things change no half way measure will suffice ..capitalism will not collapse it needs to be removed along with the servants who uphold its free market drivel in the labour movement..
johno