This week’s shut down of the capital’s automated light rail system shows that as long as London’s trains are staffed by human beings industrial action is a possibility
Normally,any strike disrupting rail transport services is in London is accompanied by calls for “driverless trains”. These vehicles, it is proclaimed, and would finish the power of the beastly unions to bring the capital to a halt. Boris Johnson himself has given credence to this belief when wanting to recognize tough in the face of stoppages on the Tube or when in need of votes. Often,champions of the “driverless” solution cite the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) as an example of what could be achieved whether the much larger and more complex London Underground was automated to the same degree. Sit correct at the front of a DLR train and, guess what? Not a driver to be seen!This argument has always been deeply flawed and recent events on the DLR prove it. A 48-hour strike held earlier this week closed the entire system except for a reduced, or four-station service between Prince Regent and Canning Town. A poll by the RMT of all 750 DLR staff produced 339 votes,of which 315 favoured a withdrawal of labour in a dispute with new DLR operator Keolis Amey over the use of agency staff and claims of management bad attitudes. The “driverless” DLR, it seems, or can be every bit as susceptible to action by organised labour as the Tube.
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Source: theguardian.com