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The RMT has form when it comes to one and two-day strikes on the Underground. Over the years, the union has threatened strikes to terrorise the government.
None of the politicians in charge of the Tube, from Margaret Thatcher to Ken Livingstone, has been able to tame its might. Boris Johnson now inherits the role of being the person to articulate Londoners' aggravation.
It is possible for the RMT to use the short strike effectively because London depends so heavily on the Tube.
Bob Crow and his colleagues calculate it is worth losing a couple of days' pay to improve pay and conditions. The tactic has worked very well from the union's point of view. Tube drivers are paid around £40,000 a year for a short week with long holidays.
The capital's economic output is worth about £1billion per working day, so even reducing this amount by five per cent would cost £50 million. Some of the lost activity can be caught up but not all.
This means the union can always argue it is worth the city paying up because the cost to Transport for London will be less than value of lost output.
Ken Livingstone spooked the RMT. Using his deep knowledge of the factional politics of the far Left, he kept down the number of strikes by making it clear he would not tolerate endless confrontations.
Boris Johnson has not been schooled in the wackier groves of this kind of politics. But he is a Conservative and the first one to be personally in charge of the TfL when the RMT has flexed its muscle.
He could either accept Bob Crow's capacity to dictate terms or he could fight. His refusal to meet the RMT suggests he is at least mooting mild confrontation.
Transport Commissioner Peter Hendy, writing in yesterday's Standard, described the union's actions in demanding the reinstatement of two sacked workers by saying "a gun was held to our heads". It seems the Tory mayor is taking a relatively hard line.
Hendy understands that the short strikes show the RMT does not want long stoppages. Because Tube drivers are relatively well paid - many have mortgages and other accoutrements of a bourgeois lifestyle - a long strike would cause big economic problems for them.
The union, which generally doesn't care about public opinion, may also find itself being tarred with the same "fat cat" brush being used on bankers and MPs.
These are changing times and people are changing their views. They might even be willing to back a mayor who took on the mighty RMT.
Tony Travers is director of the Greater London group at the LSE.
Reader views (9)
What a bunch of morans.
To use a word such as 'terrorists' only confirms your agenda.Its a 'Bushism' and a sign of a lazy mind, unable and bereft of basic cognition.
Its funny how well unionised workplaces have better wages,conditions and are safer for the employee.
Your solution is to try and have others unknown to you to suffer the same fate.Every person in the U.K has the right to join a union, they have the right to strike and to remove their labour.Its called 'Human Rights'(dont get on your high horse about European Human Rights act, the right to union membership is a British Right).
Finally, the deal was done before the strike, 'Bo Bo the Clown Johnston' created this strike, he is a Thacherite clone(clown) and its helps him to deflect from his 3 million pound Tax Funded farm, the 1 million pound house, the half million salary from other organisations and the £16.50 rememberence expence claim.
I lost two days wages to defend myself and others from a breech of agreements and certain poverty.
Borris is so in with the ordinary people of London, he does not think 'our glorious' dead are worth £16.50.
But then again its not the children of people like Boris that become 'our glorious dead'.
Congratulaions , you have the Lord Mayor you voted for!
- Oneillrmt, London
As one who in the past has RELIED on the "tube" to get to work I do hope that Boris can tame them even if it means in the short term more disruption. Well down ASLEF for keeping working.
- Frank, BONCATH, WALES
The government should get rid of all of them and recruit new staff as Ronald Reagan did with air traffic controllers in 1980.After all, these staff are relatively unskilled. Alternatively, a "no strike" agreement must be imposed. Travellers cannot be constantly held to ransom by these people.
- Peter, Watford UK
Bus drivers earn 20k and in my mind that is a far more stressful job than train drivers. Bus drivers have to deal with cash, open /close doors, deal with the London traffic with cyclist and manic drivers etc... Train drivers don't have that stress. So how come train drivers earn 40k + free travel?.
Train drivers on the DLR (Docklands Light Railway) earn 17k, although the trains are automated, they do drive the train. And they also will sell you a ticket on board.
I seem to have a hazy recollection that tube trains were operated by two staff members. One person used to be the guard to open/shut trains doors and the other was the driver. In order to agree to drive trains and do the guard's jobs, they agreed to do both jobs for a lucrative high salary. But it about time their salaries were kept under control.
It is ridiculous, that someone earning £35 per day (£5 per hour), should have to give their first hour's pay of £5 in train fares. In Newyor the fare is only about a $1.
- Rk, London
As Boris said, they are demented! It is irresponsible to go out on strike (especially if you review the details of the 'terminations'). It's rather easy return to work now or don't bother. Plenty of people can learn how to run the trains.
- Em, London
Why should drivers get a larger pay rise than anyone else in the public sector?All they do is drive trains!!If you said to me heres £40K drive thus train, I would be in heaven!!I think its disgusting due to them earning so much already per year
- Joel Turnbull, London
I think it's outrageous that London has been disrupted in teh way it has today - I have a seven year old daughter who will not see her mum for two days because in order for me to get to work within a reasonable time - I am having to stay at a relatives near to an overland.
Given the current economic climate where so many people are having such a hard time (myself included - having been a casualty of redundancy ) I think they are an utter disgrace to this country.
- Maria Koyce, Central London
You are terrorists. Holding hostage the workers of London by your strike. I hope that Boris doesn't give into your demands at a time when job security is an illusion and raises are a thing of the past.
If I were mayor, the union would get NOTHING. There are plenty of people out of work that could be taught how to run a train.
If you actually want your jobs, you should get back to work.
- Miffed At The Rmt, London
Take them on Boris.
- Peter Toone, Swansea
