Labour must not side with Heathrow staff in pay dispute, says David Lammy
Shadow foreign secretary says party needs to show it is fit for government by seeking negotiated outcomes over strikes
Labour should categorically refuse to back demands from airline workers for a pay rise of about 10% in order to show it is serious about seeking negotiated outcomes to disputes, David Lammy has said.
The shadow foreign secretary said Labour had to act like a party of government and that responsible governments believed in negotiation and compromise.
First of all, of course this Bilderburg #### would come out on the side of the bosses, spewing neo-liberal toss with abandon.
Secondly, doesn't that highlighted bit basically contradict the stance he's advocating?
The party has been criticised for not backing the RMT in the current dispute that triggered the rail strikes, but Labour frontbenchers have rarely dismissed union pay demands as firmly as Lammy in his interview on the BBC’s Sunday Morning show.
Lammy was asked if he supported the BA check-in staff at Heathrow who have voted go to on strike over management’s refusal to reverse the 10% pay cut imposed during the pandemic.
“Many of us might want a rise of 10%,” Lammy said. “In truth, most people understand it’s unlikely that you’re going to get that.”
Asked directly if he supported the check-in staff, who are members of Unite, Lammy replied: “No, I don’t. It’s a no. It’s a categorical no.”
Asked why he would not support them, he replied: “Because I’m serious about the business of being in government, and the business of being in government is that you support negotiation.
Referring to the rail dispute, he said: “This government isn’t negotiating. This government is not supporting reaching a compromise.”
Unite, unlike the RMT, is affiliated to the Labour party and has in the past been its biggest financial backer. However, Sharon Graham, who took over as general secretary last year, has strongly criticised Keir Starmer’s stance on the rail strike, and has hinted that funding for Labour will be cut.
Asked what would happen to the Labour MPs who did join picket lines to show their support for the RMT rail strike, Lammy said that Alan Campbell, the shadow chief whip, would be speaking to them “and making it very clear that a serious party of government does not join picket lines”.
Some frontbenchers and parliamentary aides were among those picketing, even though they had been explicitly ordered to stay away by Starmer’s office.
Lammy said Labour was the party of working people, but that did not mean it should automatically side with workers against employers in a dispute. Although rail workers had legitimate grievances, he suggested, there were also “working people who use the trains to get to work”.
Hahahaha. Tell us another one, Dave.
On Tuesday, the Communication Workers Union is due to start balloting postal workers on strike action over a pay rise offer of 2%. Dave Ward, the CWU general secretary, told Sky News on Sunday that he was “disappointed” by Labour’s attitude towards unions taking industrial action.
“I think Labour have miscalculated, because I think they’re obsessed with reconnecting with working people, and the reason that people moved away from Labour was over Brexit,” he said.
“I don’t think people are going to turn their backs on working people who are facing these challenges because we’re all genuinely in that together.”
Even if the wrecker Starmer gets stabbed in the pack, this piece of shit is probably the next cab off the rank. FTS....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Re: Colour me surprised. Lammy comes out against strikers
That should be "Stabbed in the back" although I really don't care where they get him at this point....no amount of cajolery, and no attempts at ethical or social seduction, can eradicate from my heart a deep burning hatred for the Tory Party...So far as I am concerned they are lower than vermin.
Not to sound too Alex Jones-y (though I probably sound a bit like the one show version)
Just like that other attendee that nice john smith, who some people seem to imagine was a socialist, rather than a OG new labourite and head of the prawn cocktail offensive (I think it must just be the 'boring' looks compared to Blair and lack of 'look, ya know' speaking style, people just assumed or something)