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Still, says Professor Gall, that alone can't explain the rail unions' power. "One of the things most people don't recognise is the degree of membership identity in the rail unions. There's a sense of a loyalty. It's not blind, it's not uncritical. But there's still a rail union identity that you don't have elsewhere." Though the RMT also represents seafarers, oil workers and bus drivers and cabbies, it's still dominated by the rail industry – and members and officials alike feel a deep-seated connection with the trade. "As other unions have become general unions [through mergers], the identity between the occupation and the union has been lost over the years," Gall adds.The Eurostar conductors' picket line on Friday was the first strike of its kind in the history of Eurostar – prompted by an ongoing dispute over London-based staff being divvied the worst shifts. One worker tells me that despite the strike coinciding with industrial action elsewhere, there's no grand directive from above. "RMT is well known as a fighting union, but we're very empowered to organise ourselves.""Our members have taken resolve from other struggles," says RMT assistant general secretary Mick Lynch. "But it's still the case that they direct us…I can't tell them when to go on strike." Mick was a Eurostar electrician himself until he was elected to his current position a year ago. "We have nobody outside the industry in the union," he says.Most people don't recognise is the degree of membership identity in the rail unions. There's a sense of a loyalty and an adherence to the union.
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And the government hasn't exactly been subtle in expressing its view that the rail unions are an obstacle to modernisation. At a public meeting in Croydon in February, Department for Transport passenger services director Peter Wilkinson called for support in future "punch-ups" with unions. "We have got to break them," he said. "They have all borrowed money to buy cars and got credit cards. They can't afford to spend too long on strike and I will push them into that place. They will have to decide if they want to give a good service or get the hell out of my industry."RMT is well known as a fighting union, but we're very empowered to organise ourselves.
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