There is Power in A Union
At least that’s what Billy Bragg wrote in his 1986 song –
the title itself probably originated with a 1913 song by Joe Hill of the ‘Wobblies’,
not a pop group, but a US trades union properly known as the Industrial Workers
of the World (i). I digress before I
begin.
As a Non Home Department Police Force (NHDPF) the British
Transport Police (BTP) have few friends in the corridors of power. The railway companies and the Department for
Transport can not be so described. One
organisation that has come out in support of BTP in recent months is the Rail
Maritime and Transport Workers Union (RMT). In press releases during the Summer,
and again in the aftermath of the recent dreadful attack on board an LNER train. The RMT has pointed to the dangers to the
public and railway staff of the cuts to the BTP budget. They have appealed to the government to
protect BTP funding and to reverse the reduction in officer numbers.
The cuts to BTP are another subject and some would point out
that the force deals with fewer crimes than it did 40 years ago and now has far
more staff. However, such comparisons
are dangerous as the context of policing has changed, as has the recording of
crime. What is obvious is that BTP
appears to have largely withdrawn from foot patrols and that visibility to the
travelling public is at an all time low.
The RMT is a big, influential left leaning union with around
80,000 members. Whether their
intervention will make any difference to the cuts is unlikely, but a voice of
support is always welcome.
The relationship between BTP and the railway unions has not
always been good. The forerunner of the
RMT – the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) – frequently came into conflict
with BTP in the 1970s and 1980s, believing that their members were sometimes
persecuted by the force to achieve ‘results’.
There were also accusations of racial discrimination, at least one case
of which reached the higher courts. In
the days when vast amounts of goods were moved by rail the issue of ‘theft
servant’ was always a difficult one. The
same was true of forces policing the non railway docks, especially for the Port
of London Authority Police, the parent of the current Port of Tilbury Police.
Railway workers make up a significant minority of the ‘population’
policed by BTP. They are a distinct
group from railway management and from the travelling public. Their concerns need to be listened to. The
force was slow to engage directly with workers but hopefully things have
changed. I recall the process started
with several very useful (but not always easy) meetings in the aftermath of the
terrorist attacks of 2005. I hope that
the current dialogue continues.
The question of the interface between police officers and
employees is a particular issue in NHDPFs, given that the areas policed have a
narrow geographical (and often economic) focus.
In some cases NHDPF officers are themselves directly employed by the
same organisation as ‘ordinary’ workers – in a few cases than can also be
members of the same union.
I would be interested to hear how the relationship between workers,
their unions and the police is managed in forces other BTP– in some senses this
goes to the heart of the specialist nature of NHD policing.
The RMT statement can be found at: https://www.rmt.org.uk/news/rmt-calls-for-btp-cuts-reversal-and-safer-railways-following/
Nov 2025
(i)
Joe Hill
was convicted of murder (some would say on weak evidence) and executed by
firing squad in Utah, USA in 1915. He is
credited with first using the phrase ‘pie in the sky’ in a lyric of 1911. The phrase was a reference to his belief that
organised religion served to repress workers by the promises of heaven etc The phrase has an a more forceful echo in the
song, The World Turned Upside Down, also covered by Billy Bragg: “The Clergy Dazzle us with Heaven or Damn us
into Hell” (Leon Rosselson, 1975). One
of the benefits of the blog format is the ability to follow any tangent however
far from the core subject!
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