Co-operative Tube - no comments

An interesting idea for improving the London Underground from Stumbling and Mumbling:

The prospect of yet more strikes on London Underground raises the question: why do we tolerate a state of affairs where class conflict is so entrenched that it renders an organization obviously unfit for purpose?

Here's my proposal - turn the underground into a co-operative. Give it away to workers and customers, who elect managers.

This would avoid strikes simply by allowing workers a direct say in the trade-offs between safety, working hours and pay. It would make Bob Crow redundant, beecause he'd have no management to oppose; it would be democratically elected.

And remember. The evidence of the John Lewis partnership shows that worker co-ops deliver customer satisfaction and good financial performance. When was the last time there was a strike at Waitrose?

It's surely worthy of consideration. Some potential problems are raised in the article, and in the comments, but it's surely progressive to replace the existing, clearly adversarial arrangement (managers on one side, workers - whether unionised or not - on the other) with something in which all sides have a stake in the success of the organisation.

It might also take some heat out of the issue of whether London Underground is in the public or the private sector, given that the former is a euphemism for "unions having too much power", and the latter for "fatcat bosses having too much power".

Chris, however, is not optimistic:

There's one thing I'm sure of, though. The chances of this happening are much lower than the merits of the idea would warrant.
This is because our main political parties are bought and paid for by capitalists and unions. So they won't want to do anything that makes these redundant.

I should add that I don't use the tube; not because I don't like it, expect long delays, or have had bad experiences, just that I'd much rather do the 18 minute walk from London Bridge to Broadgate than pay a few extra quid for adding extra hassle to my journey.