Transport Minister Keir Mather quietly confirmed that DfT Operator, the body responsible for swallowing up private railway operators in the government’s nationalisation drive, has signed a ‘voluntary recognition agreement’ with the RMT, TSSA, and Aslef. Government-backed unionisation… Labour has volunteered to treat these unions as the official voice of their own staff, handing them bargaining rights over pay and conditions and, with that, the legal right to take paid time off for union duties. As Burnham moves more and more railway operators move into public ownership, this “paid time off” will all be funded by the taxpayer. Shadow Transport Minister Richard Holden described it as Labour giving “a blank cheque to their trade union paymasters”. Going back to the nightmare of totally nationalised rail…
Nationalisation also gives the unions one employer to bargain with and more abilities to organise which is likely to make strikes more common. Labour calls it ‘public ownership’, the unions call it payday…
Krishnan Guru-Murthy asked John Healey: “Just finally, I mean Andy Burnham has been very clear he wants Britain back in the European Union in his lifetime. Do you?”
The Chancellor replied: “I’m older than Andy Burnham. I don’t expect to see that.”