(The following article by David Turner was posted on the Financial Times website on October 21.)
LONDON — The new head of Britain’s trade union for train drivers has pledged loyalty to the Labour government and marked a clear departure from the radical policies of his predecessor.
Shaun Brady, who took over the general secretary’s post at Aslef yesterday, said: “I’m a member of the Labour party and I support this Labour government.”
He added: “I will continue to support it provided it puts in the investment necessary to bring about a first-class railway system.”
Mr Brady’s conciliatory attitude contrasts sharply with the attacks on senior members of the Labour government by Mick Rix, who stunned the union world by losing his bid for re-election earlier this year.
Mr Rix, who was regarded by many as the intellectual bulwark of the “awkward squad” of trade union leaders, was heavily involved in the Stop the War campaign over Iraq. He also called on the prime minister and deputy prime minister to resign over their conduct of the long-running firefighters’ dispute. However, he had returned to the Labour party after supporting Socialist Labour for a while.
Asked whether Mr Rix had spent too much time involved in the Stop the War campaign, Mr Brady said: “The fact that the general secretary has just lost points to the fact that the membership took the view he wasn’t leading them in the direction they wanted to go.”
Mr Brady also distanced himself from Sunday’s threats by Bob Crow, the leftwing leader of the RMT transport union, of industrial action unless London Underground maintenance contracts awarded to the private sector were suspended. Mr Brady said it was not clear where the blame lay for the recent derailments on the Tube, and he would wait for the results of the inquiry before commenting.
Mr Brady listed his members’ priorities as safety first of all, followed next by job security, their “wish to be treated in a decent way”, and pensions. The new general secretary did not mention pay, despite the high-profile campaign by his predecessor – backed by strike threats – for a return to national pay bargaining. Asked whether he supported national pay bargaining, Mr Brady said it was “the policy of my trade union”.
But he revealed common ground with his predecessor by showing support for more public-sector control of the rail industry. “If you look at what’s happening with Network Rail, where it’s taking some of the contracts back in-house, they may be setting an example for what’s going to happen.”