London Busworkers under attack Unite RIO Wayne Kings treachery at Sovereign Buses is thwarted!

By Gerry Downing Secretary Grass Roots Left Readers will be aware of the attacks on London bus-drivers pay and conditions and on the fightback which has emerged. The sacking of Abdul Omer as convenor of Sovereign buses, with garages in Harrow and Edgware, in March 2010 was a central part of that attack. He lost his industrial Tribunal in early November 2011. Since then he has had a major heart operation with complications and is only recently been able to return home. Meantime the employers have pressed forward with their attacks on all fronts. Sovereign buses was the lowest paid in London when Omer became Convenor and he negotiated parity with the parent company, London United, with eight garages in Fulwell, Hounslow, Hounslow Heath, Shepherd's Bush, Stamford Brook, Park Royal, Tolworth and Twickenham. This parity deal amounted to a 4,000 pa increase over an agreed number of years. Upon the loss of his sacking appeal in April 2010 Unite Regional Industrial Officer (RIO) Wayne King immediately negotiated the annulment of that parity agreement, so Sovereign are still the lowest paid drivers. Unite has refused to hold a strike ballot over the sacking of the convenor, despite workplace ballots supporting a strike. But the drivers have rebelled over the cancellation of their parity agreement, and Unite finally agreed to carry out a legal postal ballot for industrial action on the 2011 pay offer, which they had rejected twice in garage ballots. The result of the pay strike ballot was due on 27 December 2012. Sovereign sought to circumvent this by approaching individual drivers and offering a 2% deal backdated to July 2011 (with 3% if savings can be made elsewhere) and a 235 Christmas bonus which included a no strike clause, which an unspecified number accepted. But a mass meeting was called in the middle of December and Wayne King, as one driver said, came from nowhere to take the fight out of the members and manage it. King kept the meeting waiting for fifty minutes until they began dispersing while he negotiated with the managers. He returned to tell them that, as a large number of drivers had signed the no strike deal, the result of the Electoral Reform Societys ballot would therefore be invalid. Uproar ensued. Member shouted at him that Unite was a management union, there was a call for everyone to leave the union and after a lot more abuse he left the meeting. Up to eight petitions then began circulating in the two garages, demanding the resignation of the two reps amongst other things. This action of Wayne King should lead to his removal as a Unite RIO. In the first place a contract with a no strike clause is void as it is illegal and cannot be enforced, in the second place the company cannot pay the drivers that have signed one rate and the others another, and thirdly no proof was offered that a large number of drivers had signed up, no figures were given. King had effectively negotiated de-recognition of Unite in Sovereign. This was in contrast to the position taken by Jim Buckley, another Unite RIO, who had put a stop to this underhand tactic in 2008, correctly observing that it amounted to de-recognition of the union. The company was forced to back down on that occasion and the revolt of the drivers now has had that same effect. Following the revolt against King Sovereign wrote to all drivers saying the company accepted collective bargaining and working with the trade union. It proposed a two year deal of 3.1% backdated to July 2011. Of course this is still below the rate of inflation and so should be re-

jected by the drivers; they must still demand parity with London United. One result of this has been that many drivers have left Unite and have joined the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), who have been actively recruiting. Bus drivers in a number of other garages have also joined the IWW, citing the company union tactics of Unite, the closeness of the reps to the management who are doing their bidding on almost all issues. Many of the London cleaners, who have also joined the IWW and left their own unions, have held a number of militant actions which has forced some concessions from the employers. The Grass Roots Left considers this a mistaken tactic, understandable though it is. When a United Left London meeting refused to hear sacked cleaners rep Alberto Durango on 19 June 2009 some urged a mobilisation within that organisation and in the Unite branches to defeat these bureaucratic leaders by mobilising the rank and file against them. Instead the base union tactic of sidestepping the bureaucrats by mobilising outside the union was adopted and pushed by supporters of the IWW. It will prove disastrous. Apart from a few isolated cleaning contracts where the IWW has had success against cleaning contractors in central London the IWW have no negotiating rights on the buses over wages and conditions for example. The bargaining unit is all ten garages in Metroline, so a majority would be needed there to get recognition, even a 99% membership in a single garage would not secure recognition there. It cannot call a legal strike and lacks the level of organisation to maintain unofficial action. More seriously it means that the central task facing the whole organised working class, how to defeat and drive out the corrupt TU bureaucracies, is weakened by the loss of these militant workers. And it is directionless in perspective. Because what good outcome can even a successful strike have if it is not directed at this central task? It merely annoys the bureaucrats, who have a million ways of re-establishing their strangle-hold later when the strike is over. The Grass Roots Left has different perspectives. We work within the TUs as a militant organised opposition, putting demands and pressure on the existing leaders by pickets and lobbies where appropriate and directing unofficial strike actions where the working class are up for it. This internal breakaway tactic is the only way to fight in the unions, neither sidestepping the bureaucrats nor capitulating to them but keeping them always under the maximum pressure whilst building up the confidence of the membership at the base. For Sovereign we must demand of Unite, 1. Parity with London United! 2. Remove Wayne King as RIO at Sovereign! And for all busworkers, 1. Wage settlements pegged to the rate of inflation! 2. One wage rate and one set of conditions throughout London! 3. End Competitive Tendering! 4. Renationalise the buses! 5. Build the Grass Roots Left in every garage to oust the corrupt sell-out TU bureaucrats! For more information and updates contact sacked convenor Abdul Omer Mohsin on 07830 424 395, OmerMohsin <Omermohsin2@yahoo.co.uk>; For further information from Unite contact: Wayne King on 07980 721 407, Pauline Doyle, Unite press office, on 07976 832 861 or Jody Whitehill, Unite press office, on 07768 693 956