by Socialist Party members in RMT
The transport union RMT has secured a huge victory in the fight to defend pension rights. The Transport for London (TfL) pension, which covers staff in TfL, London Underground and other TfL subsidiaries, but not subcontractors, will now continue with no change to members’ contribution rates and no reduction in pension benefits. This is a complete victory.
This should give confidence to RMT members around the country and other trade unionists, as Starmer and the employers move onto the offensive, that with a serious struggle victories can be won.
The victory has been secured through six days of all-grades strike action between March 2022 and March 2023. Each of these strike days shut down the tube. Seven consecutive ballot mandates were secured from 2022 to October 2024, in spite of the anti-union laws.
Sadiq Khan and big business
The idea of attacking tube workers’ pension rights was first raised by the Labour Mayor of London Sadiq Khan following a misnamed ‘Independent Report’. The report was written by a panel of business leaders. They produced an impeccable defence of city financiers and big business, that concluded that it would be quite wrong to expect London’s rich and powerful business leaders to contribute to public transport and so, instead, the mayor should consider congestion charging, additional council tax charges, and pension reform for TfL staff.
Later on, the Tory government made it a condition of TfL funding arrangements to carry through pension reform. But because of strike action, the pension reform milestones, the first of which was to agree the changes to be made by 2023, were all missed. The latest funding deal with the new Labour government is hopelessly inadequate for funding public transport, but there is no mention of continuing the TfL pension review.
Mention should also be made of the scandalous role of former TUC (Trades Union Congress) general secretary, Brendan Barber. In order to give cover to the business-led ‘Independent Report’, Barber was appointed to chair another review, this time specifically into the pension.
This review avoided a direct conclusion, but suggested the Local Government Pension Fund (LGPF) would make a suitable alternative that could save TfL up to £100 million a year in pension costs. Moving to the LGPS would have meant that a tube worker retiring at 60 would lose around 30% of their pension benefits. Contribution rates would have risen, for employees, from 5% to between 5% and 10% of wages.
Workers vs City bosses
Workers on the tube work around the clock. 04:30 starts, 01:30 finishes, and night duties are commonplace. The health risks associated with shift work are now well documented, as are the consequent impacts on life expectancy. While City bosses retire in their 50s, in good health and on six-figure pensions, a tube driver with 30 years’ service would expect to see a pension in the region of £30,000. Lower-paid grades and staff with fewer years on the job will retire on far less. To many workers enrolled in totally inadequate defined-contribution pension schemes the TfL scheme looks almost utopian, but it is the bare minimum that any worker should expect.
At the end of last year, TfL reported to the pension trustees that their pension review was now complete and had concluded there was not a case for reform. In recent weeks, this position has been confirmed directly to RMT by London Underground management.
The fight to defend TfL funding, to protect jobs, conditions of work and services goes on. A new ballot will be needed to allow members to continue this fight. But we can pause for a moment, and celebrate a massive victory that bucks a long-run trend of final-salary pension funds being shut down or decimated by benefit cuts and contribution rate rises.
Shame on Labour
The government and mayor should reflect on their actions. Each strike day is claimed (by the bosses’ CBI and others) to cost at least £30 million to the London economy. Some estimates are far more lurid. At any rate, the six shutdowns have cost London’s economy at least £180 million. This cost is entirely the responsibility of the mayor and the then Tory government, who were prepared to bankroll an attack on a scheme that allows workers to avoid poverty in old age.
Those who tried to smash up the TfL pension should hang their heads in shame. Instead, they will, no doubt, regroup and consider how else they can rob money from those delivering London’s public transport services. RMT must remain ready to resist them.