On Aug 20, 9:25 am, MIG wrote:
I'd be interested to know what the arguments against Bob Crow's
position on supporting his members might be, but no such reasoned
argument seems to be forthcoming.

British union leaders traditionally behaved like Crow. Understandably,
companies sought to replace their workforce with machines, foreigners
employed abroad, and foreigners employed here. As a result of that,
although plenty of British-designed goods are still manufactured, many
by British companies and quite a few in the UK, manufacturing
employment is at its lowest since the Industrial Revolution.

German union leaders traditionally behaved like the guys you accuse of
'chasing a knighthood', working co-operatively with companies to
maximise efficiency and share the benefits. As a result, Germany still
has a great deal of highly skilled domestic manufacturing industry
employing a great many people.

Fast forward to now.

If I were in charge of long-term strategic transport planning in
London, the fact that the unions are entirely uncooperative despite
transport workers' high wages and good job conditions would lead me to
eliminate as many highly-skilled manual jobs as possible from the
network, using as much automation as possible.

It would also encourage me to ensure that any network expansion plans
were handled separately from LU, relying on private-sector employers
who're slightly less under the thumb (both inherently, and because if
each line is run by a separate private sector organisation then only
that company's staff can go on strike over a particular dispute).

While it would take a long time for these changes to work through (the
peak of striking in UK industry was 1973 I think, with the trough in
2005), the end result would be to render Crow's men completely
obsolete, destroying a set of well-paid working class jobs that - if
he weren't such an obstreferous tool - both sides of the dispute would
sooner they continued to exist.

I'm not in charge of long-term strategic transport planning in London.
However, the people who are have decided to eliminate as many highly-
skilled manual jobs as possible from the network, using as much
automation as possible, and have ensured that all network expansion
plans (since 1987, with the exception of JLE and T5) are handled
separately from LU relying on discrete private sector organisations.

--
John Band
john at johnband dot org
www.johnband.org