The Railways

On the left, and more broadly, there is an acceptance that the railways should be in public ownership (wasn't that a Labour Party policy in run up to 1997?). However one of the interesting things that doesn't generally get highlighted, but is apparent in the disruption of last couple of days, is the large reliance on sub contract labour. On radio 4 tonight this problem was discussed; Network Rail employ a large contractor who in turn use agencies to provide the skilled and unskilled workers. This leads to a lack of control over labour availability, and as highlighted by Ken Loach's brilliant Navigators, poor conditions for the workers.

So whilst we talk about re-nationalisation, we should also be campaigning for re-employment of workers on permanent contracts with decent pay and conditions. These decent pay and conditions could be funded by the saving in profit that is currently being charged on the labour by the agencies and then in turn by the Contractors.