Anger over picket line stance


Anger with the Labour leadership over its stance towards picket lines grew last month when Sam Tarry was fired as a junior minister after attending a rail works picket line.


While party leader Keir Starmer said Tarry was sacked for unauthorised media appearances, the TSSA transport union, whose picket line Tarry had joined, was not convinced. General secretary Manuel Cortes said that “the reality is that Sam has shown solidarity with his class and we applaud him for that”. 


Meanwhile, the executive council of the FBU firefighters’ union held a meeting to discuss the Labour leadership’s “distinct lack of support for unions taking strike action”. It said it was “appalled that shadow ministers are being threatened and sacked for standing in solidarity with strikers on picket lines”.


It called on Labour to revisit the decisions, “and more fundamentally, to re-orientate policy towards supporting workers taking action to maintain and improve their terms and conditions.”