Lobby report from Dave Putson, Unite Community member
Well, I went to the George the 5th Monument opposite Parliament today to show some solidarity with my RMT comrades, as they continue to fight to highlight the issues surrounding the “St Patrick’s Day Massacre”, when in 2022 P&O sacked nearly 800 workers, giving them 24 hours notice of the termination of their employment.
As their CEO stated to a Parliamentary committee, they had factored in the potential costs and knew the actions they were taking broke UK law, but went ahead anyway. I suspect they knew that the UK government would make loud but ultimately futile noises about “how appalling this was” with pronouncements of “actions we propose to take”, whilst nothing would be done.
The calculations of P&O, possibly thrashed out behind closed doors with the said government, proved correct. And here we are, two years on, no still action against P&O, and no sanctions. However, they have been awarded nearly £1bn of government contracts in the intervening period, almost like a reward, for their attack on working class people, something this government has been undertaking since the 2010 General Election.
There were many excellent speakers at this lobby, specifically the Maritime Union of Australia. Their speaker spoke of the needs of both industrial and political action and mentioned, what was unknown to many of us, that the P&O parent company DP World, had been taken on in many, many disputes in recent years in Australia, but the union eventually won a 26% pay award from them for their members employed by DP World.
There were delegations at this lobby, too, from Norway and elsewhere. The TUC were also present and the Assistant General Secretary spoke, although I am not sure why, given how little the TUC have done in the intervening years to try and address or highlight this ongoing issue. One woman speaker gave an internationalist flavour to her speech by referencing the flag of convenience issue, and how many international sailors are exploited. This issue is not just a matter for UK maritime workers, but for workers linked to the merchant marine across the world.
There must be a general election coming towards us at a rate of knots, given how so many MPs took the time to be present, including some who, in my estimation, have done and still do offer very little to trades union issues. But they still wanted to be front and centre on the stage and behind the banners, always ready for a photo opportunity, if not so much for real trades union solidarity!
I heard two people express disgust at one specific Labour MP, Stephen Kinnock, gurning and applauding speeches, and like the others, he immediately left the crowd, whereas the rest of us stayed for the bigger and wider issues of solidarity, and international solidarity!
Whilst the RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary, Eddie Dempsey, was busy providing an interview to LBC Radio, John Hendy KC was seconded from the attendant crowd, to the stage to speak, and provided an impromptu five-minute bravura performance on some legal aspects that would be pertinent to this case in any future, or forthcoming negotiations. He is always value for money (even seemingly without prep time).
Eddie Dempsey eventually finalised his other duties and returned to offer the last, and rousing, speech of the day and I believe he covered every single topic that impacted and impacts those workers (and their families), so summarily and illegally despatched onto the P&O scrapheap.
I am not sure who the “toff” was who seemed to be “promenading” at the end, in his pale pink trousers, pale blue un-ironed jacket and grey hair. I’m not even sure if he was from the “other place” or simply a nosy intelligence officer, but he missed the end of the event and speeches and, appropriately, looked completely bemused at working class people actually talking to one another and making sense.
Having supported the lobby, I scuttled off and had a coffee with an MP’s aide inside “the arse of the beast..” coffee shop and then it was all over at by 2.30.
