The Roundel Caged — CGPGrey/Flickr

On a February morning, Sadiq Khan found himself promising an audience at West Thames College that there would be no public transport strikes if he was elected Mayor of London.

Oh how the Mayor must regret that morning. In the month he was elected, Khan found his “zero strikes” pledge — which his team quickly spun into an “aspiration” — shattered by the RMT. Four months later, and the Mayor’s commitment to his promise was questioned again when workers on the Circle Line and the Hammersmith & City Line went on strike because staff toilet breaks were being timed.

Now the RMT are set to threaten the Mayor’s credibility for the third time in less than a year. Over the next few weeks 400 Piccadilly Line drivers will be balloted on strike action that Mick Cash has blamed on a “wholesale breakdown in industrial relations”. If this strike action does take place, it will fall at the start of the Christmas shopping season and dent the Capital’s economy.

To allow such strike action to take place would, to use the Mayor’s own words, be a failure of government. So what does Khan intend to do?

Not a lot, it would seem. Khan has not committed himself to any involvement in the coming bust-up since it was announced on Thursday, despite promising to “maintain better industrial relations” in his manifesto. Rather, the Mayor spent his Thursday night blasting Brexit and seeking a seat at the negotiation table, as though he didn’t already have an important job to be getting on with.

I suspect the Mayor has tried to dodge the threat of coming strike action for two reasons. The first reason being that he does not believe he can enter any negotiations and leave the victor. There is some logic to that view. The RMT have caused chaos for commuters over the pettiest of workplace disputes as of late and have not appeared willing to compromise. Trying to mediate any dispute where they are involved could rightly be considered a waste of time.

However, this argument does not stand up for Khan when you consider that his party leader is pally with the RMT. A word to Corbyn’s office would go a long way to helping the Mayor manage Mick Cash — or at least it would were Khan and Corbyn not on opposite sides of the track.

Here-in lies the real reason the Mayor does not wish to get stuck into rail disputes: doing so with any chance of success would come at a personal cost. The Mayor would have to find his way back into the Corbyn camp, and doing so would alienate his colleagues and destroy his party leadership ambitions. I doubt this is a price he is willing to pay.

If the Mayor is to show that he’s serious about protecting the interests of Londoners, he must do what’s best for public transport in the Capital at the cost of personal capital.

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