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Tube strike. They had PLENTY of warning.

Guido | 07.09.2007 12:30 | Workers' Movements | London

One of more nauseating (if predictable) aspects of this weeks strike by RMT maintenance workers was the pitiful claims by the corporate media. The usual ‘They went on strike without warning’ and ‘they sabotaged the negotiations by walking out’ claims have been flying around the national newspapers and TV news. Actually the ballot for strike action was announced VERY publicly (see photos below) 7 weeks before Tuesday’s stoppage.

"We are the RMT..."

"...noone like us..."

"...we dont care."

"Even armed cops don't scare us...."

"...come and av a go if you fink youre ard enough!"

Thanks to Thatcher’s anti-trade union laws the amount of notice that needs to be given of a stoppage is huge. The fact that the mainstream media decided not publicise the threat of strike action until a few days before, when they had over two months notice is not the fault of the union. The loud and well-attended demo outside Downing St (pictures above) was the culmination of a long running dispute that had been brewing since the collapse of Metronet. Had the mainstream media bothered to take an interest the public would have known full well the reasons and causes behind the strike.

Guido
e-mail: guidoreports@riseup.net

Additions

Strike

07.09.2007 16:04

The media reported this horrendously - only the Independant bothered to explain it, the Guardian was fairly neutral on the matter, but all the other papers, especially, and most harmfully, the free ones, conveyed this as some kind of pointless strike on the part of Commie nutters wanting to subject Londoners to travelling chaos just for the fun of it. It is disgusting that such an issue is so badly reported, because everybody I have spoken to didn't even realise who was striking or why, just that they were bastards for doing it.

Good on the RMT, they had my full support.

Hamish Kallin

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