...or at least it shouldn't be, and the latest news, as noted in comments, that Keir Starmer has sacked shadow transport minister Sam Tarry is as predictable as it is absurd.
The rationale behind the sacking is worse.
Keir Starmer has told shadow ministers not to join picket lines, stressing that Labour is a party seeking to govern that should aim to solve disputes. Several shadow ministers who joined picket lines during the last strike did not lose their jobs, despite the warning.
The fact Tarry was a Corbyn supporter may have had something to do with that last. But the idea that Labour is some sort of neutral entity 'solving' disputes is absurd. Labour is linked to the unions in ways that make any such neutrality simply unfeasible, and to pretend that it exists is pointless. This doesn't mean Labour and unions act in lockstep, but it does mean that properly constituted strikes and industrial actions where Labour representatives are in attendance on picket lines should not see the dismissal of same.
And the stance raises impossible contradictions.
Senior shadow ministers have privately expressed doubt that Labour's position on strikes is sustainable, after
Keir Starmer sacked the frontbencher Sam Tarry for doing broadcast interviews from a rail strike picket line...Frontbenchers told the Guardian they could be put in untenable positions with multiple industrial actions planned by unions in the coming months – including by rail workers,
postal workers,
NHS staff and teachers. "There are a lot of people saying, I don't know if I can stay on the frontbench," one senior source said.
And:
"There will be other frontbenchers who will want to support striking workers in their constituencies," they said. Another Labour source said: "Postal strikes will be a nightmare because it's potentially hundreds of people in your constituencies. This would be supporting very moderate unions affiliated to the party. And MPs depend on support from unions."
The party argues:
A Labour party spokesperson said: "The Labour party will always stand up for working people fighting for better pay, terms and conditions at work.
"This isn't about appearing on a picket line. Members of the frontbench sign up to collective responsibility. That includes media appearances being approved and speaking to agreed frontbench positions.
"As a government in waiting, any breach of collective responsibility is taken extremely seriously and for these reasons Sam Tarry has been removed from the frontbench."
But this is a legal industrial action, the very definition of working people fighting for better pay, terms and conditions at work. If not now when?
Then there's this small detail.
Tarry, who is in a relationship with the Labour deputy leader, Angela Rayner, said in a statement he did not regret his actions. "As a Labour politician, I am proud to stand with these striking rail workers on the picket line in the face of relentless attacks by this Tory government," he said.
This just smacks of the worst sort of blinkered Labour right opportunism.
More here.
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