In his questions to Gordon Brown about the British Airways strike at today's PMQs, David Cameron revealed himself to be an old-style Tory in the Thatcher mould: blind support for big business over the rights of workers; lending a hand to company directors rather than seeking a better deal for the lower-paid. Of course, this isn't particularly surprising - it's what the Tories have always done - but it is striking that he's learned nothing from such greed-fuelled catastrophes as the collapse of the banking system (greedy financial speculators ruining the economy) or, more mundanely, the National Express default on the east coast main line (greedy company bosses bailing out when the going got tough). Surely he should have grasped the idea that unchecked capitalism is not always a good thing? That sometimes we have to stand up to big business to protect ordinary people?
I'm not a blind loyalist to the trade unions. I believe passionately in the notion that workers should have a forceful advocate for their rights; that colleagues should act collectively to address legitimate grievances and prevent exploitation; and that unions provide workers with an essential collective voice and strength. But I also believe that unions shouldn't be able to hold employers to ransom and that some unions give the movement a bad name (for example the RMT which continues to cause mayhem on the London Underground despite tube drivers getting a bloody good wage).
But David Cameron simply believes that strikes and unions are bad no matter what the grievance. Now's not the right time for a strike, eh? So when is the right time? How would he suggest that the workers make their views heard? Or would he prefer that they just do as they're told and bow to a deal which will make them worse off - business first, workers last?
The fact is that BA workers have very legitimate complaints against the company:
- A 2-year pay freeze from 2010
- Reductions in the number of cabin crew on long-haul flights
- Different contracts for newly-recruited and newly-promoted staff which provides for only one single-point management grade and no incentives for length of service
What makes it more egregious is that the way it was presented by management - 'we're all in it together and need to make sacrifices' - is laughable. BA Chief Executive Willie Walsh has a basic salary of £735,000 plus the potential for large bonuses. I remember a while back when BA were trying to make economies; they asked their staff to go without pay for a month to show 'support and loyalty' to the company. It became pretty clear that, in the event of redundancies, the first to go would be those who hadn't signed up to this - but it's a bit easier to go a month without pay if you're earning close to a million a year than if you're cabin crew on £20-odd thousand! Shameful!
Cameron just sees the unions as evil. He doesn't recognise their right to strike. He's seeking to politicise the strike by putting pressure on a Labour prime minister to 'bust the strike' and allow workers to 'cross the picket lines'. His conduct in relation to the affair is opportunistic and his views on the matter are ill-informed. Same old Tories...
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