Labor must flatly refuse to support airline workers’ demands for a 10% pay rise to show they are serious about seeking to negotiate the outcome of disputes, David Lamy said.
The shadow foreign minister said Labor should act as a party of the government and that responsible governments believed in negotiation and compromise.
The party has been criticized for not supporting RMT in the current controversy, which has sparked rail strikes, but Labor leaders have rarely rejected demands to pay unions as strongly as Lamy in an interview with BBC Sunday Morning.
Lamy was asked if he supported the BA registration staff at Heathrow, who voted for the strike because of the management’s refusal to cancel the 10% pay cut imposed during the pandemic.
“Many of us may want a 10% increase,” Lamy said. “As a matter of fact, most people understand that you’re unlikely to get this.”
Asked directly if he supported the check-in staff who are members of Unite, Lamy replied: “No, I don’t. This is not. That’s definitely not the case. “
Asked why he did not support them, he replied: “Because I am serious about the business of being in the government, and the job of being in the government is to support the negotiations.
Referring to the railway dispute, he said: “This government is not negotiating. This government does not support a compromise. “
Unite, unlike RMT, is affiliated with the Labor Party and has been its biggest financial supporter in the past. However, Sharon Graham, who took over as secretary general last year, sharply criticized Keira Starmer’s position on the railroad strike and hinted that Labor funding would be cut.
Asked what would happen to Labor MPs who joined the picket lines to show their support for the RMT rail strike, Lamy said Alan Campbell, the main whip in the shadows, would talk to them “and give it is understood that a serious government party does not join the picket lines. “
Among those who picketed were some of the front courts and parliamentary assistants, although they were explicitly ordered to stay away from Starmer’s office.
Lamy said Labor was a party of working people, but that did not mean he should automatically side with workers against employers in a dispute. Although railway workers have well-founded complaints, he suggests, there are also “working people who use trains to get to work.”
Sign up for First Edition, our free daily newsletter – every weekday morning at 7am BST
On Tuesday, the Communications Workers’ Union is due to start voting for postal workers on strike over a 2% pay rise proposal. Dave Ward, the CWU’s secretary general, told Sky News on Sunday that he was “disappointed” by Labor’s attitude toward industrial unions.
“I think Labor is wrong because I think they are obsessed with reconnecting with working people and the reason people are moving away from Labor is because of Brexit,” he said.
“I don’t think people will turn their backs on working people who are facing these challenges, because we are all really in this together.”
Add Comment