RMT News July / August 12

ISSUE NUMBER 6,, VOLUME 14

JULY/AUGUST 2012

Essential reading for today’s transport worker

RESISTING AND WINNING ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING RESOLVES TO DEFEND WORKERS’ RIGHTS

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

RMT REWARDS PAGE 10

EU HANDS OFF SCOTTISH TRANSPORT PAGE 11

NO SOCIAL DUMPING OFFSHORE PAGE 19

www www.rmt.org.uk w rmt rm org uk

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

contents

EDITORIAL

UNITY IS STRENGTH

Page 4

OLYMPIC BALLOTS AT TWO TRAIN COMPANIES Page 5

P&O CRUISES CELEBRATES WITH SOCIAL DUMPING Page 6

MPS BACK FIGHT FOR PAY JUSTICE FOR TYNE AND WEAR METRO CLEANERS Page 7

BOMBARDIER SCANDAL ONE YEAR ON Page 8

OLYMPIC LEGEND BACKS VICTIMISED RMT MEMBER Page 9 PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN Page 10

RMT REWARDS Page 11

EU HANDS OFF SCOTTISH TRANSPORT Page 12

NO TO SOCIAL DUMPING IN THE OFFSHORE SECTOR Page 13

REPORT REVEALS DIESEL FUMES CAUSE CANCER Page 14

ALL HANDS TO DEFEND JOBS Page 16

COMPENSATION VICTORY… AT LAST Page 17

AGM 2012 REPORT Page 26

CON DEMS ATTACK EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS Page 27

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN Page 28

RMT’S BIGGEST-EVER LGBT CONFERENCE SETS OUT PLAN OF ACTION Page 30

BUILDING THE UNION Page 32

LEGAL VICTORIES Page 33

LEEDS LEARNERS LEAD Page 34

POLITICAL SCHOOL Page 35

FREE THE MIAMI 5 Page 36

IRANIAN TRADE UNIONISTS WIN FREEDOM Page 37

ELECTION ADS/CROSSWORD Page 38

CREDIT UNION RMT News is compiled and originated by National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers, Unity House, 39 Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD. Tel: 020 7387 4771. Fax: 020 7529 8808. e-mail bdenny@rmt.org.uk The information contained in this publication is believed to be correct but cannot be guaranteed. All rights reserved. RMT News is designed by Bighand Creative and printed by Leycol Printers. General editor: Bob Crow. Managing editor: Brian Denny. No part of this document may be reproduced without prior written approval of RMT. No liability is accepted for any errors or omissions.

Copyright RMT 2011

RMTnews

he union has emerged unified and determined from our annual general meeting in Torquay in late June.

Delegates representing transport workers from every grade gathered to discuss issues concerning their workmates and matters concerning the union as a whole.

The effects of privatisation, social dumping and the attacks on working people by this rotten Con Dem cabal was a common theme. The resolve to fight back and defend workers was also ever present.

A good example of this was the recent pension victory at North Link ferries in Scotland. Serco, which has been awarded the contract to run the services, had told RMT that it planned to transfer the seafarers to its own pension scheme.

Members serving on the lifeline ferry services to the Northern Isles would have lost their membership of the shipping industry pension scheme for ratings, MNRGPP. This threat has now been lifted following objections from the union.

RMT is seeking the same arrangements with Caledonian MacBrayne ferries.

This constant battle to defend pay, pensions and working conditions of is also going on every day for bus, rail and Tube workers and more.

The union recently convened a special meeting for road freight members to look at improving the density of union membership in the sector. This is a major organising priority for the union involving the organisation unit and the education and membership departments.

A major issue for the union has been the Olympics and winning decent pay arrangements for transport workers who will undoubtedly bear the brunt of the huge strains put on the transport network throughout August.

I am pleased to say that due to the hard work of reps and organisers the union has won decent compensation deals for most transport workers working on the mainline and the Tube.

However South West Trains and Greater Anglia have seen fit not to pass on some of the expected profits made during the Olympics to their hardworking staff. Therefore the union is balloting members for action in order to win some pay justice.

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We all want the Olympics to be a success but we cannot have fairness on some train companies and a slap round the face on others.

The fact that London Underground are recruiting a further 600 Customer Service Advisors, coming on top of the 300 employed earlier this year is to be welcomed.

Yet this is an outright admission that they got their station staffing cuts programme wrong and that if they had listened to the union in the first place they could have saved themselves a huge amount of disruption and embarrassment.

Tube bosses were warned repeatedly that their job cuts programme would come back to haunt them and so it has proved.

However if the McNulty proposals are rammed through the programme of planned job cuts will create the same problems caused by de-staffing across the entire rail network.

I recently addressed a Parliamentary Transport Select Committee inquiry into the government’s McNulty-inspired rail cuts.

I warned them that removing station, catering, on-train and infrastructure staff and splitting up maintenance into ‘miniRail Tracks’ would be disastrous for Britain’s railways.

Roy McNulty himself then took the stand to state that TUC claims of 20,000 job losses as the result of his recommendations were “exaggerated”.

However McNulty went on to claim that the losses would be in the region of 6,000, three times the number in his own report. I hope that MPs notice that McNulty can’t add up.

I was pleased to march with the RMT contingent at Gay Pride this year.

Millions of people have been discriminated against for their sexuality for hundreds of years. Trade unionists could learn a lot from this struggle for equality.

Finally I hope you and your families enjoy a summer holiday or a break this year even if the British weather remains unpredictable as ever.

Best wishes

When you have finished with this magazine give it to a workmate who is not in your union. Even better, ask them to join RMT by filling in the application form opposite 3

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RMTnews

OLYMPIC BALLOTS AT TWO TRAIN COMPANIES allots for strike action and action short of a strike are taking place on two main train services: South West Trains and Greater Anglia.

A further ballot at First Great Western has been called off after the company finally made an offer of a £300 payment plus bonuses.

RMT has now concluded substantial recognition and reward agreements on Southern, First Capital Connect, C2C, Chiltern, East Midlands Trains and East Coast to add to the industry benchmarked deals on Heathrow Express, Virgin, Network Rail, DLR and London Underground amongst others.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow addressed a special Waterloo branch arranged for all SWT members pointing out that the company had breached the 2011 pay agreement by attempting to impose temporary rosters and declining leave applications.

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RMT SETTLES WEST LONDON SERVICE CONTROL DISPUTE The Piccadilly and sub-surface lines control dispute has been settled following a series of ACAS talks and strike action was called off.

Following extensive negotiations RMT has been able to secure agreements that protect earnings, employment, grading, career progression, training and the release time for union representatives.

Waterloo branch

SWT had previously told the union that there would be minimumal extra services during the Olympics before producing considerable additional and extended services “SWT is making a huge profit and will make even more from the Olympics and our members should be getting a slice of the cake as the workload will be increased.

“Deals have now been concluded on the vast majority of transport operators that recognised the massive additional effort of the workforce.

“It was a scandal that these companies are trying to force their staff to work longer and harder for little or nothing in return.

"We all want the Olympics to be a success but we cannot have fairness on some train companies and a slap round the face on others.

"RMT is campaigning for a massive yes vote in these ballots and we remain available for meaningful talks to resolve these disputes mindful that the clock is ticking down,” he said.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union had secured the assurances on the issues at the heart of the dispute.

“These are the same key service control staff who keep services running when demand is at a peak and they are the same staff who manage the problems when the lines are hit by breakdowns and failures and it is only right that they have now secured a just and fair settlement.

“I want to pay tribute to the hard work of our negotiators and the solidarity and determination of RMT members that has been instrumental in settling this dispute,” he said.

TFL OLYMPICS STRIKE ACTION taff working directly for Transport for London took strike action in early July after the organisation refused to offer any kind of recognition and reward for the huge increase in workload and pressure arising from the extended Olympics period.

Despite strenuous efforts by RMT negotiators to reach a settlement, TFL have now confirmed that staff in travel information centres and call centres will receive absolutely no Olympic bonus.

These RMT members are not even allowed to volunteer for the travel ambassador position and are therefore even unable to earn the paltry £20 a shift on offer to volunteer Travel ambassadors.

RMT has asked that TfL go to ACAS in order to resolve the dispute and they have refused to

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do so point blank.

Staff are facing imposed Olympic rosters, short term changes to shifts and a block on annual leave. To add to the insult TfL senior managers have diverted the whole of their Olympic delivery funding to privately run call centres in Scotland (Journey Call) and Northampton (Novacroft). This runs into hundreds of thousands of pounds which could have been used towards a fair remuneration package for the staff in dispute.

The action comes as it emerged that senior bosses at the organisation are set to rake in massive Olympics payments themselves.

According to TfL's unaudited annual report, the top seven staff are in line to cash in on two years of annual bonuses worth £560,000 which equates

to £80,000 each if the system runs smoothly during the Olympic Games.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said slammed the rank hypocrisy of TFL managers, who stand to hit the bonus jackpot during the Olympics while offering their own directly employed staff nothing, stinks and the refusal to even go to ACAS is an act of sheer contempt.

“These TfL staff will be as

busy as anybody else and the attempt to bullying them into bans on annual leave and unilateral changes to working conditions for nothing in return is a disgrace.

“RMT remains available for talks and with Boris Johnson directly intervening in the bus dispute there is no excuse for him, as chair of TFL, not to get involved in settling this issue,” he said.

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RMTnews

P&O CRUISES CELEBRATE WITH SOCIAL DUMPING &O Cruises commemorated 175 years of P&O shipping in July by sacking Indian catering staff for protesting against low pay in a clear case of social dumping.

About 150 people recruited in India to work six to nine months at sea, at least 14 hours' work a day, every day on cruises around the world were not re-employed after taking part in an hour-long protest at sea.

Their meagre livelihood depended on passengers tips.

With basic wages of as little as 75p an hour, tips make up the bulk of earnings – and these were drying up.

In late 2010 P&O Cruises had agreed to review procedures, to instigate more auto-tipping, and underwrite the crew's rock bottom wages. But by the middle of 2011 nothing had been done.

While the cruise ship Arcadia was in port in Seattle, the lowest paid decided to hold a short

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protest. The ship's British captain Kevin Oprey had spoken to the Southampton head office to relay the restaurant staff's concerns. The waiters then returned to work, labouring late into the night, and were assured there would be no recriminations or sanctions.

While most on board assumed the matter had been amicably laid to rest, a different decision was being taken in the head offices of P&O's owner, Carnival.

This protest could not, directors decided, be tolerated – no matter what assurances the captain had given the crew.

The Guardian reported that a new remuneration package would raise the lowest rate of basic pay to £250 a month.

Additional bonuses, replacing tips, could be withheld from crew who failed to achieve satisfaction ratings of 92 per cent.

But Carnival's letter to crew

members continued: "Unfortunately, the majority of the restaurant crew on the Arcadia chose not to wait…

Instead these crew, which included yourself, chose to take industrial action … greatly impacting our customers. This behaviour is not something Carnival UK is prepared to tolerate".

The Mumbai recruitment agency Fleet Maritime Service International also said that no waiter who took part in the protest would be re-engaged on any Carnival UK ship.

Fleet employees are not protected by British law and the letters of effective dismissal only listed the address of its registered office in Bermuda, a favoured flag of convenience.

The Fleet payroll office is in the tax haven of Guernsey. Yet the letter is signed by an Edward Jones, the chief financial officer of Carnival UK.

RMT national secretary Steve Todd said that large cruise companies had convoluted ways of getting past the employment legislation of countries they belong to.

“There's a brass plate on the wall in Bermuda and the levers being pulled in head offices at home.

“It's a shabby, unacceptable practice to exploit cheap foreign labour and it needs stamping out," he said.

Fleet is the largest employer of cruise ship personnel in India, and Carnival runs half of the world cruise market. Ship workers often send the bulk of their pay packets to support families at home.

The chief executive of Carnival UK David Dingle, told the Guardian that at the recruitment office in Mumbai "there are queues out on to the street. It clearly is of value to these people".

CHAMBER OF SHIPPING BACKS FLOUTING OF WORK PERMIT REGULATIONS Shipping unions slammed the Chamber of Shipping after it leapt to the defence of Streamline who are operating the Daroja under a Cypriot flag on the Aberdeen-Kirkwall route with a mixed overseas crew in what the union believes is an attempt to dodge work permit

regulations.

RMT and Nautilus have raised the issue in a joint letter to ministers.

Instead of supporting the right to work of British seafarers on the dole, the Chamber of Shipping backed the move: “The chamber considers that Europe’s

open coastlines policy remains in the wider interests of UK shipping and the UK economy generally”.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said was a scandal that instead of defending British seafarers’ rights and employment opportunities the

Chamber of Shipping was backing dubious employment practices off the Scottish coast.

“The Chamber is supposed to support our industry not line up with those who use every opportunity to exploit foreign workers at the expense of British jobs,” he said.

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RMTnews

MPS BACK FIGHT FOR PAY JUSTICE FOR TYNE AND WEAR METRO CLEANERS Ps have come out in support of the Churchill’s cleaning staff on the Tyne and Wear Metro in their fight for pay justice.

Early Day Motion 291, tabled

by Gateshead MP Ian Mearns and promoted by the Northern TUC, has been placed on the parliamentary agenda.

The Churchill’s cleaners’ battle is over an attempt by the highly-profitable company to impose a zero per cent pay award on a workforce already on the bare minimum wage.

Despite extensive talks and pressure from the union Churchill’s, following discussions with their client DB Regio, have decided to offer no increase in basic pay whatsoever.

This is despite the fact that the company has doubled its profits in the past five years and has extracted nearly £7 million from the exploitation of essential cleaning staff on the most basic pay and conditions including no sick pay, no pensions and none of the travel concessions rights enjoyed by other NEXUS workers.

While the company is trying to enshrine poverty pay

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CHURCHILL CLEANERS EDM 291

amongst the staff who deliver vast returns for the shareholders, its own highest paid director has had a salary increase of more than 18 per cent in the last five years to nearly £160,000 making a nonsense of their claims that they can’t afford a decent offer to the front-line cleaning staff.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow welcomed the political support from MPs in the fight for pay justice for this important group of North East transport staff.

“In the face of the insulting zero pay offer from the company our members have had no option but to fight back in the battle to eliminate poverty

pay.

“Our members have shown rock solid unity and determination in the industrial and community campaign to end this exploitation by a company whose Boardroom is awash with cash and whose top bosses are raking it in at our members’ expense.

“It is a scandal that the regional passenger organisation NEXUS, and the operating company DB Regio, have not lifted a finger to stop this exploitation and poverty pay scandal on their own doorstep and RMT has no intention of letting them off the hook,” he said.

That this House commends the work undertaken by the cleaners employed by Churchill Contract Services on the Tyne and Wear Metro; notes they are paid minimum wage rates for the vital work they do; believes that the recent decision to freeze their wages was unmerited considering company profits had doubled over the last five years and directors' pay had risen up to 18 per cent; calls on the company to return to negotiations with Tyne and Wear Metro cleaners to resolve this pay dispute to prevent further industrial action; supports the cleaners and their fight for fair pay; and congratulates those councillors who are campaigning for a living wage in the North East region. www.parliament.uk/edm/ 2012-13/291

TYNE & WEAR METRO STRIKE WINS IMPROVED OFFER trike action by RMT members on the Tyne and Wear Metro scheduled for late June was suspended after operating company DB Regio tabled an improved pay offer.

A strike on June 7 – alongside Churchill cleaners striking in a separate pay and victimisation dispute – brought the network to a standstill, after

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RMT members voted overwhelmingly for action against a pay offer that would have delivered perpetual pay cuts.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that DB Regio had tabled an improved offer that represented a substantial shift in the company’s position.

“Our members are to be

congratulated for the rock-solid action they took, which gave our talks team the leverage needed to deliver movement from the company,” he said.

The deal included a 2.1 per cent pay increase or £520 whichever the greater and a £500 one off payment for the consolidation of the Red Book Bonus. It also included 10 free

travel passes for permanently employed employees, spouses, dependants under 16 or in full time education.

These are to be applicable on the following Train Operating Companies: Arriva Trains Wales, Cross Country Trains, Chiltern Railways and Grand Central.

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

RMTnews

BOMBARDIER SCANDAL ONE YEAR ON MT slammed the government on the first anniversary of its decision to hand over the vital £1.4 billion Thameslink rail fleet contract to Siemens of Germany, as opposed to Bombardier in Derby.

The contract still remains unsigned one year on and the union blasted Rail Minister Theresa Villiers for “dragging out for a whole year an act of industrial vandalism that continues to leave the future of train building in the nation that gave the railways to the world hanging by a thread”.

The government announced

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the Siemens/Thameslink stitchup, at the expense of Bombardier in Derby, June last year and since that date it has been dogged by revelations of sleeze, incompetence and gross political mismanagement.

But when the minister announced the Siemens deal she claimed that there was no time to reconsider the socioeconomic impact of kicking the legs from under our last train manufacturer, Bombardier in Derby.

Now the contract is no closer to being signed off under the EU procurement process with the German outfit because of the

financial crisis in the European banking sector as Siemens has the status of a bank.

In her latest Commons statement, Villiers has made a clear admission that the deal has hit the buffers and that Siemens had no cash in place to build the Thameslink trains in a direct contradiction of everything RMT was told when the contract was awarded last year.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the one year delay in the botched handling of the contract nailed once and for all the government lie that it is too late to award of the work to

Bombardier in Derby which is geared up and ready to go.

“It is sheer government ineptitude that has left thousands of jobs dangling by a thread and the whole future of train building in the UK on the critical list.

“RMT is demanding an end to the whole long drawn out Thameslink fleet scandal and a cancellation of the failed Siemens deal in favour of Bombardier in Derby where the skills and capacity to deliver these trains isn’t bound up with the Eurozone financial crisis,” he said.

EU IMPOSES MEGA TRUCK POLICY uropean Transport Commissioner Siim Kallas has re-interpreted EU rules to allow cross border traffic of mega trucks between consenting countries without consulting either the European Parliament or the Council of Ministers.

Freight on Rail spokeswoman Philippa Edmunds said the moves to allow 25-metre long 40 tonne mega trucks between consenting countries is in blatant disregard of the democratic process and will be impossible to enforce.

The transport group is

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concerned that by authorising mega truck traffic between consenting countries, the EU is choosing to both bypass the democratic process and implement a weight limit that cannot be enforced.

Mega trucks are operating at a maximum limit of 60 tonnes in Sweden, Finland and the Netherlands. Most EU borders do not have facilities to check weights and countries operating within the Schengen agreement do not have border controls.

At the moment, countries are only permitted to have larger heavier HGVs, which do

not comply with existing international regulations, to operate within their own borders.

Whilst the UK government currently says it will not allow mega trucks to circulate in the UK, Freight on Rail believes it will come under huge pressure on competition grounds to allow these lorries, despite all the adverse safety, congestion and environmental consequences.

The European Commission's own research in Jan 2009 stated that mega trucks are more dangerous than standard HGVs.

Philippa Edmunds said that weight limits were also effectively meaningless as the commission had no means of enforcing it.

“Instead of pursuing this undemocratic change to the existing policy to allow cross border traffic of mega trucks, the Commission should evaluate the road safety, congestion and pollution implications of mega trucks and let national Parliaments and transport ministers make the decision in the normal democratic way,” she said.

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RMTnews

OLYMPIC LEGEND BACKS VICTIMISED RMT MEMBER lympic legend John Carlos, who raised a gloved fist at the ’68 Mexico games in support of the struggle for equal rights, sent a message of support to an RMT member battling victimisation and injustice.

Dayna Nembhard, a London Underground CSA, was sacked by the company after resisting a racist attack in a take-away

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restaurant while off-duty.

After eight years unblemished service LU managers flouted their own policies and sacked Dayna ignoring the fact that she was pregnant at the time, that there were no police charges against her, that there was no customer complaint and that she was away from LU premises.

RMT has since won her job back. While on a speaking tour in this country John Carlos said: "Dayna - we stand with you 1000 per cent.

“We just wish we could be there with you in your appeals meeting and stand by your side.

This is about right v wrong and you are on the side of right,” he said.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that Dayna had been a victim of a grave injustice.

“The eyes of the world are on London at the moment and it sends out an appalling message to have this kind of blatant victimisation being pursued against a dedicated member of the tube workforce,” he said.

CORPORATE WELFARE FOR SHIPOWNERS K shipowners have pocketed £670 million in tonnage-tax relief since the turn of the century, without providing promised employment and training opportunities for UK ratings.

RMT renewed its call for the tax break to be linked directly to jobs, training and decent minimum employment standards after a House of Commons question tabled by parliamentary group convenor, John McDonnell MP, exposed the extent of the hand-outs.

Treasury minister Chloe Smith revealed that the tax

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liabilities of companies qualifying for tonnage tax since 2000 were a massive £670 million less than they would have been under standard corporation tax.

But over the same period, the proportion of UK seafarers employed on tonnage-tax ships fell from 52 per cent to just 27 per cent in 2010-11, while over the last 30 years the number of British ratings in the UK merchant navy has fallen from more than 57,000 to fewer than 14,000.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said John McDonnell had

done a huge service by exposing what amounts to a £50 million annual corporate-welfare handout to employers, many of whom drive down pay and conditions by exploiting cheap overseas labour.

“The Chamber of Shipping promised that its members would boost the number of UK rating trainees by 25 per cent every year, but the reality is that their number has plummeted to around a quarter of their 1999 level, and not a single extra rating’s job has been created,” he said.

John McDonnell MP said that

it was shocking that such huge sums are given in tax relief to shipowners simply for registering their vessels in the UK, but who are required to give absolutely nothing in return.

“The RMT parliamentary group and national secretary Steve Todd will be meeting ministers to put the case very forcefully that employers who benefit from the tonnage tax are required to offer jobs and training opportunities and to observe decent minimum employment standards,” he said.

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UNIONS DEMAND HALT TO COASTGUARD CLOSURES oastguard and seafarers’ unions PCS and RMT have demanded a halt to the government’s planned cuts and closure programme to coastguard and maritime rescue centres.

One of the threatened rescue facilities, Clyde, is set to be closed in December with no alternative capacity coming on stream until April 2013 at the earliest leaving the life-saving services with hopelessly inadequate cover for months.

The unions said that the whole botched Clyde coastguard closure plan, confirmed in a letter from the minister Mike Penning, revealed that the reorganisation by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency is simply a cuts-led exercise that will have devastating implications for safety at sea.

The MCA proposals would cut more than 140 jobs and close nine coastguard stations around the UK including Brixham, Clyde, Forth, Liverpool, Portland, Solent, Swansea, Thames, Yarmouth.

For the sake of just £400,000 per year, the coalition government abolished the Maritime Incident Response Group which had valuable expertise and capability in fighting fires at sea, loading even more demand on remaining staff.

Public and Commercial Services union general secretary Mark Serwotka said: “Instead of gambling with people's lives, ministers should be investing to ensure we have the proper resources in place to run a safe and effective coastguard service".

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that RMT members at sea depended on facilities like the coastguard day in and day out to ensure their safety.

“The whole botched handling of the Clyde centre, the first on the hit list, is a foretaste of what can be expected around the rest of the coast as the cuts plans are rolled out," he said.

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RMTnews

Parliamentary column

CHALLENGING MCNULTY Instead of cutting staff, raising fares and breaking up the industry, the railways should be nationalised Bob Crow told MPs recently.

Bob was appearing alongside the leaders of sister rail unions at the Parliamentary Transport Select Committee inquiry into the governments McNulty-inspired rail cuts.

Bob told the committee that “if you take what is happening at the moment, the railways in Europe are 30 per cent cheaper than the ones over here on the basis that the railways in Europe are near enough all nationalised.

“They do have private companies running them, but they all report to one chief executive.

“There is no captain of the ship at all of the railways in Britain,” he said.

Bob also pointed out that public ownership was already working in Britain.

“You have parts of the railway now that are nationalised.

“The East Coast Main Line, which runs trains from King’s Cross to Inverness, is nationalised and run by the state particularly well.

“It is moving a lot of passengers up and down, and at the end of the day it gives the opportunity to the government to do one of two things when the annual accounts come in.

“The money that the company makes can be reinvested into the railway or the government can keep it for themselves and give it to other social services,” he said.

Bob also warned that the McNulty reforms to cuts station, catering, on train and infrastructure staff would be disastrous for Britain’s Railways. Bob slated proposals to break up Network Rail and warned “we have now set up mini Railtracks.

“We have a managing director who is now supposed to be responsible for the infrastructure and also for the train operating company.

“He has Stagecoach in one ear saying to him ‘I want you to make a profit’ and

Network Rail in the other ear saying ‘you need to maintain the railways properly because we don’t want another disaster”.

MPs were also warned that cutting guards would also be disastrous for safety.

“Southall, Hatfield and Potters Bar—it is the guard trained in evacuating people ...that is what their name says: to guard the people on that train and to make sure they are safe.

“And cuts to station and ticket office staff will turn stations into ‘muggers’ paradise’ with passengers being forced to pay the most expensive fares from ticket machines,” he said.

Mick Whelan from ASLEF also warned of the dangers of driver-only-operation and cutting staff: “We see people afraid to travel late at night and we see women not wanting to use them, all the studies tell us that we have problems out there.

“The reality is that taking people off platforms, off the back of trains and out of the industry does not make the railway a safer place.

“It does not make it more user-friendly or more cost-effective and we believe it is the wrong thing to do,” he said.

Manuel Cortes of TSSA pointed to “all the evidence suggests that when you take staff out of stations they become a magnet, for petty crime, antisocial behaviour and vandalism.

“It deters people from travelling at night in particular. Also, there is no one left behind to lend a hand to those with mobility problems,” he said.

The select committee also took evidence from Roy McNulty who managed to get his jobs figures in a twist by stating that union claims of 20,000 job losses as the result of his recommendations were “exaggerated”.

McNulty claimed that the losses would be in the region of 6,000 at the most, this is despite McNulty’s own report showing DOO, Network Rail cuts and loss of ticket office and station staff alone would mean losses of 2,000. It is hoped that MPs also accept that McNulty can’t add up

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RMTnews

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RMTnews

EU HANDS OFF SCOTTISH TRANSPORT RMT general secretary Bob Crow explains how the drive for profit and European Union tendering and competition rules are pulling Scotland’s transport network apart There are plans afoot for the current Scotrail rail franchise to be broken up into five separate fragments - increasing the scope for profiteering, higher fares and duplication of effort.

In a consultation launched by the government agency Transport Scotland in advance of tendering in 2014 it said that “there is no statutory limit to the number of franchises that could operate in Scotland.

“ScotRail could be subdivided along lines that would create geographically or operationally distinct franchises, for example, the sleeper services, regional routes, all or some inter-urban services (such as Edinburgh Glasgow),” it said.

The consultation document revealed that the agency is currently considering “whether the Caledonian Sleeper Services, for instance, should be offered as a separate franchise”.

The Transport Scotland consultation paper refers to EU rules just as the European Commission is urging the

further "unbundling" of railway companies across Europe.

“The European Union's First Rail Package requires a degree of separation between the organisation which operates the rail infrastructure and the organisation which operates the rail passenger services.

“It also requires that there is a level of separation between both these organisations and government,” the consultation said.

The consultative European parliament has rubberstamped Commission proposals to impose the EU model for railways – fragmentation, separation and ‘liberalisation’ – across the continent.

To do this all EU rail directives have been ‘recast’ in order to ‘establish a single European railway area’.

This EU privatisation model, implemented in Britain, demands a split between train operations and infrastructure and ‘open access’ rules in order to fragment the industry to

force market mechanisms into the industry.

Now the Commission is seeking to break up "holding companies" by which France and Germany have maintained a common parent company with separate accounts to avoid outright privatisation.

The new ‘recast’ EU rail package also demands further fragmentation with "more flexible" service facilities for train maintenance, cleaning, refuelling and shunting to boost outsourcing and subcontracting in rail services.

The directive encourages private finance initiatives (PFI) for design, commission, development and operation of railways and repeals legislation on safety of staff, rolling stock, working conditions and social rights of workers and consumers, and imposes strikebreaking clauses in commercial rail contracts.

The EU’s aim is to fragment national rail systems to ensure permanent private ownership and bumper profits for investors achieved on the backs of cuts to safety, jobs and services.

This EU business model for rail is remarkably similar to the McNulty report which demands even more fragmentation and more privatisation of the rail industry.

Transport Scotland admits fares will have to go up, and services could be more overcrowded on certain routes

and there will be slower trains.

Lifeline ferry services are also under threat from EU diktat.

Last year RMT warned that consultation on “unbundling” Scottish ferry services masked Scottish government plans to privatise Caledonian MacBrayne and hive off profitable, or subsidy-rich ferry routes to privateers such as Stagecoach’s Brian Souter, a major Scottish National Party donor, allowing “cherry-picking” of ferry services.

RMT warned that fares would rocket as effort is duplicated and premium services like the Caledonian Sleeper are milked for every penny.

This move fits in with the EU drive to break up national transport services in the interest of maximising opportunities for the rip-off merchants from the private sector.

The union together with the Scottish TUC will be meeting Transport Scotland on the issue and it is high on the agenda of the RMT group in the Scottish Parliament.

The alternative to the EU and Con Dem mania for privatisation is for publiclyowned and integrated transport networks that are accountable to the people.

If voters were given that choice instead of endless austerity and EU diktats they would take it and we would all be winners.

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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july 2012 ::

RMTnews

NO TO SOCIAL DUMPING IN THE OFFSHORE SECTOR Offshore energy workers meet in Dundee to discuss health and safety, new assaults on trade union rights and social dumping In the centre of Dundee there is a life-size bronze casting of one of the City’s favourite sons, Desperate Dan. The man himself would have needed to summon up all his legendary strength to deal with the problems and pressures being thrown at RMT members in the offshore energy industry revealed in the packed agenda at the Biennial Grades Conference.

Kicking off with an introduction from general secretary Bob Crow, conference heard of the latest vindictive assault on workers’ rights being cooked up through the Beecroft proposals and how employers are licking their lips at the prospect of even tighter antiunion laws.

With RMT fresh from the courts with a victory over the balloting process in the COTA dispute covering offshore caterers, Bob warned: “This lot won’t be finished until they have effectively outlawed the right to strike through binding us up in impossible legislation and have closed off the rights to Employment Tribunals by levying charges and penalties that would bleed the individual and their union dry.

“That’s is what is at stake in this battle against the Beecroft 12

proposals” he said.

National secretary Steve Todd gave a briefing on the current industrial and political backdrop across the sector and warned of the need to build the organisation and unity needed to face the challenges ahead: “We cannot underestimate the scale of the threats that we face and we have to rise to the challenge in a spirit of cooperation and partnership.

“RMT is up for taking on the employers at every stage – not least on the crucial issues of access to the offshore workforce and over health and safety.

“The bosses need to get the message that the entire RMT organisation stands shoulder to shoulder with our offshore membership, take on one member or one section and you take on the union as a whole,” he said.

HEALTH AND SAFETY Offshore organiser Jake Molloy took conference through the current position of joint industry committees and working groups and the pressure that the union has been applying to ensure they operate effectively.

Jake focussed in on the health and safety work of the union, specifically in light of

the grounding of the Bond’s helicopter fleet following the most recent ditching at sea.

RMT had led the campaign for the grounding and had been instrumental in applying the pressure to Bond’s both through the press and through the Helicopter Safety Steering Group for the thorough safety checking of the fleet.

During the safety debate, conference was shown a film on the use of the Dacon Scoop. The film showed the scoop, basically a net on a hydraulic arm, supposedly lifting dummies and an inflatable raft out of the water and dumping the contents on the deck.

The Dacon Scoop is a cheapskate alternative to the use of fast rescue craft, although it is presented as being an option when it is unsafe to use the rescue craft or when they are out of range.

Pilots union BALPA have joined with RMT in opposing the use of the Dalcon Scoop and that campaign has been taken through the structures of the TUC and into the wider trade union movement. Conference registered its continuing outrage at the proposed introduction of the scoop as means of rescue and agreed to ramp up a political campaign to stop to its

introduction.

There was extensive debate on the key questions of access to the workforce, recognition and recruitment opportunities.

Kenny Broxson from the Offshore Energy branch commended the union for the hard work on recognition and conference agreed on a targeted recruitment programme.

Abuse of bogus selfemployment and medical fitness procedures by greedy employers drew out a range of examples from delegates as to how processes can be distorted and misused to put the workforce under pressure and to set up individuals.

Conference agreed to make these issues a campaigning priority.

NO TO SOCIAL DUMPING Derek Moore, North East Shipping branch moved a detailed motion on Immigration and Employment of non-EAA Nationals calling for union campaign to “stop the decimation of seafaring jobs, including those in the offshore construction sector working on vessels, in the UK offshore sector by the increasing use of non EEA foreign labour”.

Delegates pointed out that £240 million has been

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 :: earmarked for the decommissioning of rigs and warned that with the extension of social dumping in the North Sea the work could be handed over to foreign nationals earning a pittance.

“We’ve all seen the images of ships being broken up virtually by hand on the beaches of Bangladesh – is that the kind of working practices we want to roll out in the UK offshore sector?” he asked. The issue of bringing in low paid foreign labour in a process known as Mode 4 was discussed in depth.

WHAT IS MODE 4?

Mode 4 is a concept developed in global trade talks covering the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) and is designed to allow companies to bring in low-cost foreign labour and it actively encourages ‘social dumping’.

Mode 4 involves individuals travelling from their own country to supply services in another (eg oil workers), officially known as "movement of natural persons".

GATS Mode 4 only covers people moving temporarily, although there is no definition of temporary. In effect the length of stay allowed by GATS Mode 4 is identified by the offers and agreements made in countries’ negotiating positions

RMTnews

and varies from a few months to a few years (renewable) depending on the type of work (and usually level of skill).

Business visitors can usually stay for up to three months, while intra-corporate transfers are usually for between two to five years.

The EU is currently negotiating a free trade deal with India which would allow western corporations access to India’s vast retail, banking and insurance sector in return for unlimited Mode 4 flow of labour from India to the EU. David Cameron’s Con Dem coalition has opened four new consulates in India to process working applications for the UK in the name of driving down wages and conditions.

Conference voted unanimously to oppose this charter for social dumping which is already RMT and TUC policy.

Christine McCrossan from the union’s lawyers gave a detailed analysis of the current state of the anti-union laws, their genesis and the prospects for the future.

So, tough challenges ahead for the offshore sector but with the clear message that only fighting and militant trade union organisation can defend and extend pay, conditions, safety and workplace rights.

REPORT REVEALS DIESEL FUMES CAUSE CANCER

iesel engine exhaust fumes cause cancer and belong in the same potentially deadly category as asbestos, arsenic and mustard gas, according to the World Health Organisation.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the WHO, has reclassified diesel exhausts from 'probable' carcinogens to a group of substances that have definite links to cancer.

Research has shown that regular exposure to diesel fumes is as likely to cause cancer as

D

passive smoking.

A statement further said: "the working group found that diesel exhaust is a cause of lung cancer and also noted a positive association with an increased risk of bladder cancer".

As a result RMT has written to shipping employers asking what they intend to do to counter the risks from exposure to diesel exhaust fumes. The letter asked what their plans are for monitoring those who may already have been exposed and those who may be exposed in

the future.

“Employers should have robust procedures in place that protect the health, safety and welfare of the workforce,” the letter said.

Health officials have also called for governments to act on 'cleaning-up' the fumes emitted from vehicle exhausts.

The experts, who said their decision was unanimous and based on 'compelling' scientific evidence, urged people across the world to reduce exposure to diesel fumes as much as possible.

The decision is a result of a meeting of independent experts who assessed the latest scientific evidence on the cancer-causing potential of diesel and gasoline exhausts.

It puts diesel fumes in the same risk category as noxious substances such as asbestos, arsenic, mustard gas, alcohol and tobacco.

'It's on the same order of magnitude as passive smoking,' said Kurt Straif, director of the IARC department that evaluates cancer risks.

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ALL HANDS TO DEFEND JOBS Batten down the hatches to protect jobs, pensions and services was the message from RMT’s national shipping and docks conference in Eastbourne With working people across the economy under attack by the ConDem government the union was focused on protecting jobs, opposing privatisation of lifeline ferry services and defending pensions and conditions, said national secretary Steve Todd.

“This union has a long tradition of fighting, and that is what we will continue to do,” said Steve.

Steve paid tribute to Royal Fleet Auxiliary members who had taken two days of strike action alongside public-sector colleagues to defend their pensions against a “crude cashgrab” by the government.

The problems being faced by the shipping industry reflected the global attack on working people, and another capitalist economic storm was brewing which would be worse than 2008 general secretary Bob Crow told delegates.

It was against that background that the union was

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defending jobs, pay and conditions against aggressive social dumping and privatisation.

However, noted Bob, the rich had still been getting richer, and it was time to ask: “What do we want – a society in which billions are spent on bankers and destruction, or on peaceful construction?”

There was scope to increase the shipping membership by 2,000, assistant national secretary Mark Carden told delegates, who emphasised the importance of recruitment and organising as the backbone of the union.

Delegates pledged to redouble efforts to end social dumping in UK waters and adopted a plan of action to expose shipowners paying poverty wages.

Tony George, Southampton Shipping, condemned the “disgrace” of Condor Shipping paying less than half of the UK minimum wage.

Mick Tosh, Portsmouth, dismissed Condor’s “pathetic” excuse that without the superexploitation of overseas ratings goods would become more expensive in the shops.

“Just talking about this is no longer an option,” said Steve Todd, outlining the steps the union had already been taking against social dumping, especially in the Irish Sea, and the campaign recently kicked off in Aberdeen aimed at exposing “shameless” employers in the offshore sector.

The tendering of Scotland’s lifeline ferry services and the threatened break-up of Caledonian MacBrayne were disgraceful and must be fought, and jobs, terms and conditions – including pensions – would be defended, delegates agreed.

The tendering drive was being driven by European Union free-market diktat, said Mick Tosh, who warned of the disastrous effect that

privatisation had had on Wightlink “We have made it quite clear that our terms and conditions are not up for sale,” said Steve Todd, who asked: “Why can’t they just do what the French do and ignore Brussels?”

The news that Serco was set to take over Northlink had been “sneaked out” by the Scottish government, but the union was prepared for a fight, and to ensure that pension rights were retained, said Steve.

The people working on Scotland’s lifeline ferries had lived under the threat of privatisation for years, but the union’s past successes in beating it off should not allow complacency, said conference chair Brian Reynolds.

Delegates expressed “grave concerns” at ship-owners’ attempts to reduce manning levels of watch-keeping ratings using the 1997 ‘Safe Manning’ regulations as their criteria.

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 :: DFDS in Dover had proposed to reduce deck-manning to levels which RMT believed were unsafe, and showed just how weak these provisions were, said Willie Shearer, Dover Shipping.

“If DFDS can get away with this how long will it be before the other shipowners’ follow suit?” said Willie.

The Marine and Coastguard Agency had effectively dismissed the union’s concerns, giving the green light to owners to reduce manning levels with impunity, ignoring safe crewing levels that had been established over decades.

The problem of deductions from pay for accommodation and food by Clyde Marine was highlighted by Tony George, Southampton Shipping, who urged the union to bring a legal case to establish a court precedent that it was unlawful.

Individual cases had been settled out of court thanks to the help of Thompson’s Solicitors but delegates agreed that it was important to establish that the practice was unacceptable.

Bullying at sea was an increasing problem that needed to be met head-on by the union, delegates agreed.

The problem was a serious one and required positive workplace campaigns to ensure that all staff – including managers – were aware of policies, and that bullying was always reported, with the support of the union, said Graham Wallace Glasgow shipping.

“Procedures often look good on paper, but the employer will often simply dismiss the idea

that there has been any bullying,” said Mick Tosh, who revealed that as many as ten cases a year were brought at Wightlink.

The extension of the campaign against social dumping by flags of convenience to include ‘ports of convenience’, where the problem, coupled with casualisation, was also undermining jobs and conditions, gave the opportunity to relaunch the campaign, delegates agreed.

The aim should be equal pay for all seafarers doing the same work, including temporary workers, said Sam Brown, Liverpool Shipping.

The difficulty of getting paid release for health-and-safety and other courses was underlined by delegates, a number of whom said they had never or only rarely been allowed time off by employers who pleaded that they couldn’t afford it – despite it being a legal right.

The union should approach all employers to secure time off for health and safety reps, and should ensure that its own education courses accommodated the different legislation that applied to seafarers.

There was also an urgent need for a campaign to win equal standing for seafaring health and safety reps with their land-based counterparts, said Mark Jeffries, Portsmouth.

“We need one set of regulations, harmonised to the highest standards, that suit all UK workers, on land or sea,” he said.

RMTnews

AWARD: RMT general secretary presents national secretary Steve Todd with his 25 and 40-year membership badges and a crystal globe.

An ageing workforce and the abolition of the default retirement age had created a “demographic time-bomb”, and regular health screening should be made available by employers for all seafarers over 50, delegates agreed.

The scrapping of the DRA was “nothing to do with equality but about exploitation”, said Willie Shearer.

Action to mitigate the serious health implications of diesel exhaust fumes on ferry car decks and in engine rooms was called for by delegates.

A body of evidence had emerged that exposure could lead to health problems including blood clots, and conference called for urgent research, regular health screening and guidelines to be issued to eliminate or minimise exposure, said Graham Wallace, Glasgow Shipping.

EDUCATION IS A CLASS WEAPON The importance of trade union education in fighting against inequality and for workers’ rights was underlined by education officer Andy Gilchrist.

Outlining the developing RMT education programme, Andy emphasised that it was aimed at equipping members with the tools needed to win at work and strengthen organisation.

The union’s structured education programme included courses designed specifically by and for seafarers, said Andy, who urged delegates to enrol for a course at the union’s expanding national education centre in Doncaster.

Delegates thanked Norrie McVicar for his work as ITF inspection co-ordinator, and the relaunch of the campaign against social dumping.

RFA IN HAVANA he RFA Fort Rosalie (left) docked in the Cuban capital last month with more than 100 crew members aboard to mark the 250th anniversary of the Battle of Havana.

British forces laid siege to Havana in June 1762 during the Seven Years' War. At the time, the city was an important base

T

for Spanish military power.

Havana remained under British control until the following year, when Spain ceded Florida under a treaty.

The Fort Rosalie usually aids British Navy operations. Its visit coincided with British cultural week, which includes cinematic, theatrical and musical events.

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RMTnews

COMPENSATION VICTORY… AT LAST

Danny Smith reports on how the union finally won compensation for a Tube worker viciously attacked ten years ago A London Underground worker left with permanent jaw injuries after a violent assault by a passenger over ten years ago has finally won compensation thanks to local RMT reps.

James Lambert was subjected to two years of verbal abuse in the line of duty by the same passenger, eventually being attacked in November 2001 and sustaining injuries requiring not only stitches but also for James to wear a night brace for the rest of his life.

Despite the attack taking place over a decade ago, James says of his injuries: “You never get used to it, I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone”.

What is more shocking is that LUL displayed a lack of regard for James’ welfare throughout the ordeal as they ignored his complaints leading up to the attack, and then afterwards failed to implement their own publicly-advertised policy of prosecuting all those who verbally or physically abuse staff members.

At the time RMT Jubilee South and East London Branch secretary Jason Humphreys said: “It is unbelievable that staff can be treated in this way while management claim to prosecute the perpetrators of violent attacks”.

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After LUL’s inadequate response James contacted RMT which provided advice and assistance through what turned out to be a long and arduous appeal process before securing compensation of £5,500 from the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority (CICA).

Whilst the money will never fully amend for the injuries sustained, it provides a sense of justice after years of uncertainty. Speaking about the case, Mark Harding, the second RMT branch secretary to guide James through his appeal, said he was pleased by the outcome.

“It wasn’t easy but with the support of the union James was able to see it through,” he said.

James’ initial enquiries to the government scheme resulted in him being awarded the paltry sum of £612, as he was incorrectly deducted £388 because of his RMT Accident Benefit.

As new evidence came to light in 2004 James submitted a successful request for his case to be re-examined, however it would be a further six years before a second disappointing offer of compensation would be made. After advice from RMT reps, James declined this offer, deciding instead to pursue matters further resulting in a

CICA appeal tribunal in June 2011, in which James was awarded £5,500.

“Without well trained, experienced RMT reps to assist him it is unlikely that James would have been successful in his claim and achieved the maximum amount that he could be awarded under the scheme,” Mark Harding said. So Mark’s message to other members in a similar situation is don’t be intimidated by the bureaucracy.

“It can take time and it can be difficult but that is what the union is here for, to guide and assist members through such processes and incidents.

“If you find yourself in a similar situation get in touch with your local rep or branch secretary and complete the legal claim form L1” he said.

Every day transport workers face threats to their physical and mental wellbeing at the hands of unruly and at times violent passengers. Often company policy is inadequate or the implementation of staffprotection policies does not live up to its promises.

If the proposals contained in the McNulty review are implemented this function of the union could take on a greater significance. With jobs numbers being cut staff are

increasingly likely to be left isolated while attempting to deal with swollen passenger numbers in crowded situations. This increased staff-to-passenger ratio inevitably increases the risk to both staff and passenger safety.

A Ministry of Justice consultation published in January (Getting it right for victims and witnesses) is proposing to reduce the eligibility of transport workers to claim compensation for injuries in the lowest bands of the CICS. One example is the plan to remove railway suicides from the scheme, meaning that those who suffer anxiety and other conditions after witnessing a suicide would be left with no eligibility to pursue compensation from the scheme.

This was first proposed by the Labour government in 2004 but defeated by a trade union campaign.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that in the face of these attacks the assistance provided by the union becomes ever more valuable.

“James Lambert is testament to what the union and its members can achieve, even in daunting and difficult circumstances,” he said.

AGM 2012

A webcast of RMT’s AGM can be viewed in the members area of the union’s website

TORQUAY

DEFENDING DECENT PUBLIC TRANSPORT SERVICES Delegates to the RMT annual general meeting in Torquay set out a fighting agenda to combat government attacks on transport services, jobs, wages and conditions

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

RMTnews

AGM 2011 - TORQUAY RENATIONALISE RAIL RMT annual general meeting delegates demanded the renationalisation of the entire rail industry in order to protect service levels and jobs.

RMT assistant general secretary Pat Sikorski said that such a move would protect catering services on board trains from being tendered out by potential franchisers. He warned that fragmentation and subcontracting would see the union ballot for industrial action.

Delegates agreed that inhouse staff should always be part of the bidding process when there is a re-franchise bid in place.

Nick Quirk, Plymouth said: “All our jobs are at risk but catering is one of the most vulnerable.

“We want to make sure services are run in-house with good terms and conditions”.

He highlighted that trolley services, brought in to replace catering services, are not as safe with members getting regularly abused and sexually assaulted by drunken passengers with no place of safety while the trolley itself is too big to even push and pull.

Chris Reilly, Reading said the union does not want to see people replaced with vending machines.

“We must stop the race to the

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bottom,” he commented. “Often catering staff have no pensions are on low salaries and don’t even get any sick pay.”

Derek England, Leeds City said: “We must make sure that when investments to tender go out all our jobs and services are protected.

“We are the wealth makers so our jobs should be protected,” he said.

Steven Skelly, Bridgend, Llantrisant and District highlighted the “huge importance” of the issues describing them as “persecuting workers in future organisations”.

Mr Sikorski responded: “We are living in a world of tendering. Only the renationalisation of the whole rail industry will meet the demands of this resolution.

“It’s also an organising issue and making sure as many workers as possible are unionised, otherwise we will not be able to achieve these objectives”.

Train workers also urged the union to continue its campaign to protect and promote the work and role of the guard that are under fresh attacks from McNulty’s rail review, which proposes to introduce driveronly trains.

Conductor William Kimm, Liverpool called on members to “wake up” and fight as well as

convince the public and fellow workers of the dangers of McNulty.

“Unless we stand up and fight they are going to get rid of us,” he said.

Stuart Holt, Central & North Mersey who works as a guard, stressed the need to sell what a guard does. “It’s not just about tickets it’s about safety,” he said.

Train driver Kenneth Slade, East Kent commented: “We need guards at the back of the trains. If we need something doing, there is a guard there. It’s about the whole role of the guard.

“We need these people on the trains, we need their protection and we need their support,” he said.

Train operator Bob Law, Jubilee South and East London warned that soon they would be saying that they don’t need anyone on the train.

“We’ve got to fight for every job on trains because nobody is safe,” he said.

Conference agreed unanimously to protect the role and responsibility of the guard and, while welcoming technical improvements, to defend vigorously any attacks on members by the attempt to use technology as a weapon to cut jobs.

Pat Sikorski responded said the union had campaigned

intensely on this issue.

“McNulty is austerity for the railways and more and more jobs are going to be lost.

“We have to develop good campaigns in every single depot.

“It has to be all guards taking action or there won’t be any action at all, united we stand, divided we fall,” he said.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow also slammed a “bogus and loaded” consultation process launched by the government aimed at reprivatising the East Coast Mainline on a new, gold-plated 12 year franchise despite the disaster of two previous private sector failures on the route.

Both the GNER and National Express contracts on the East Coast collapsed into financial and operational chaos.

“This consultation is wholly bogus and totally loaded towards knocking the crucial East Coast route down to another bunch of private sector chancers on a 12 year franchise despite the chaos of two previous failures that left the public sector to pick up the pieces.

“This is McNulty in action, the government are offering private companies a new fleet of trains, a gold-plated, extended franchise and a one way ticket to the bank at the expense of

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

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AGM 2011 - TORQUAY passengers and the taxpayer.

“And when they’ve bled the East Coast dry they can simply throw the keys back and walk away without any penalty as happened three years ago with National Express.

“It would be nothing short of a scandal if the government refused to consider the cheaper and more efficient option of allowing the public sector to continue to running the route and would show that this Government is totally under the control of their big-business supporters,” he said.

DEFENDING FERRY SERVICES Delegates unanimously backed plans to strengthen the union’s campaign against the Scottish Ferries Review that could put members working conditions and pensions at risk from private takeovers.

Tom Causby, Aberdeen shipping warned that any introduction of “single route tenders” could see pensions as well as terms and conditions sacrificed when private operators take over.

The union is seeking clarification over the safeguards from previous tenders that it wishes to see replicated or strengthened in future tenders.

Letters have been sent to the First Minister, the Cabinet Secretary and the Transport

Minister by Scottish TUC to outline why it is believed “single route tenders” will threaten the future viability of all lifeline ferry services.

The union argues that “single route tendering” and the breakup into five or so franchises for Railways Scotland clearly demonstrates the government’s overall strategy of cherry picking profitable routes for its business friends such as Souter - a prime bidder for sleeper services.

Conference agreed to make relevant employers aware that members’ terms and conditions as well as their redundancy packages are not for sale.

General secretary Bob Crow added: “They must honour existing pension funds and existing terms and conditions.

We are ideologically opposed to this. If privateers think they have got and easy ride, they should know that we are putting up.”

Conference also unanimously called for seafarers’ safety reps to receive equal standing with land based representatives.

It heard that seafarers are more likely to suffer death and injury in the workplace than those in other industries.

Conductor Wayne Moore, Bletchley and Northampton said: “It’s outrageous that they

Labour MP John MacDonnell

don’t receive the same health and safety that we do”.

DEFENDING BUS WORKERS A pledge was unanimously made to fight large bus operators using small, low cost subsidiary companies to dilute workers conditions and pay during times of financial instability and unemployment.

Mike Barry, Plymouth said: “They are setting up one driver against another and trying to get us all on one rate of pay and one set of terms and conditions.

“If this is allowed to continue they will destroy a lot of work our regional reps have achieved”.

Senior assistant general secretary Mick Cash agreed that employers, in order to drive

down costs and undermine the workforce, were using different tactics.

He said: “It’s all about organisation and how well you’re organised. There needs to be a good organising strategy getting into workplaces in order to protect pay and conditions”.

FIGHTING MCNULTY Left Labour MP John McDonnell gave a rousing state of the nation speech to conference as he delivered RMT’s parliamentary group annual report.

He said the parliamentary group has become a beacon for other unions who have adopted operations in a similar way.

The Hayes and Harlington MP said the group has been trying to expose Network Rail

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AGM 2011 - TORQUAY Bob Crow

bonuses for bosses at the expense of low pay for cleaners as well as the EU’s roles in the privatisation of rail right across Europe.

Mr McDonnell is seeking to raise the question of the future of Scottish ferries as well as bus services, with cuts to jobs and services while fare hikes are allowed to continue to rise.

He highlighted a lack of training and investment and the need to make sure that transport staff work in safer conditions.

And he pledged to fight the McNulty rail review, which proposes to break up Network Rail, make widespread ticket office closures and to switch to driver only trains while cutting staff costs on the railway by 35 per cent.

“We are in the most perilous economic situation we have been in decades with cut after cut after cut,” he said. “People are suffering. People are

20

suffering badly at the moment.

Those who are out of work are accused of being scroungers and those with disabilities, particularly mental illness, are suffering even worse.

“We’re living in a modern form of slavery with people asked to work for nothing with no prospect of getting a job.

“People are not taking it.

They are fighting back, through the ballot box, industrial action

and direct action.

“We need to bring this government down at the first opportunity.

“The bulk of the trade union movement is absolutely solid.

“What do we do next?

Coordinate that action as best we can.

“The TUC is organising a demonstration on October 20 and our job is to make sure people pour out and use that as a launch pad to bring that industrial action together.

“We want a society that’s fair and equal. That means the redistribution of wealth. Not, as we’ve seen, a £150 billion increase in the rich list’s wealth.

“We have forged our own group to be accountable for us. I will work as hard as I can. We need to bring this government down as soon as we possibly can.

“Every trade union in this country is the hope for the rest of the society through courage, determination and solidarity. We will bring this government down.”

Bob Crow thanked “all activists for the hard work they have done over the year” against a government hell-bent on destroying public services.

“This is the fight of our lives now, we must attack this dirty Con-Dem government in order to give people a better service than they are getting at the moment,” he said.

Mr Crow also indicated that he is looking into a smartphone application that offers a daily news bulletin for all members.

FIGHTING ANTI-UNION LAWS Vicious new threats to trade union rights both in Britain and across the EU were vehemently opposed.

Andy Littlechild, London Underground Engineering led the debate calling on the union to reaffirm its commitment to remove anti-trade union laws and pledge to oppose any new legal threats proposed by the ConDem coalition.

“The last government did nothing to remove anti-trade union laws but the current government is going to make them a whole lot worse,” he said.

He highlighted a string of new anti-union government proposals including extending the qualifying period for unfair dismissal from one year to two, introducing fees of up to £500 before a claim can be lodged at an employment tribunal and banning strikes in essential services.

Other measures include requiring over 40 per cent turnout in support of a ballot with non-voters becoming no votes, demanding that strikes can only go ahead if they win more than half the vote and allowing firms to recruit scab agency staff to cover strikers.

James McDaid, Bakerloo said: “It’s only a matter of time before the ConDem government try to eradicate what little trade union rights we have left.

“We take strike action when our employers try to shaft us not because we are trying to create problems.”

Ross Marshall

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

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AGM 2011 - TORQUAY

Emma Baldwin

Delegates also pledged to launch a high profile campaign against a new wave of antitrade union legislation being brought by the European Commission under its Monti II regulation, which threatens the right to take collective action when workers are posted to another member state.

RMT argues it will allow multinational firms, including transport and energy employers, to rely on court orders to tear up pre-existing collective agreements where they employ a workforce to carry out work abroad or bid for contracts to provide services in other EU member states.

Bob Crow said: “The EU does not bring workers together, it brings big businesses together for private profit.

“Employers are going to give us nothing unless we fight for it and as soon as we put one foot out of line we find ourselves in court.

“This is the biggest attack on workers in living memory,” he said.

SUPPORTING STRIKE ACTION Delegates backed calls made by RMT young members to support all strike action taken against attacks on pensions and government cuts and to combat anti-trade union propaganda.

Conference heard that as part of its deficit reduction and cuts agenda the government wants public sector workers to pay more, get less and work longer for their pensions.

The government claims this will make public sector pensions

affordable and sustainable for the future, but delegates argued that most schemes including those for teachers and NHS staff are running surpluses that are being squirreled away into the Treasury piggy bank to plug the deficit.

Oliver New, Piccadilly and District West said: “We’ve got a US healthcare system with our pensions.

“We need a unified trade union movement and create a strategy to defend public sector pensions.

“We should have a good living wage for all elderly people and workers must fight for our pensions,” he said.

Conference agreed to go as far as possible to coordinate any future strike action alongside that taken by public sector unions and support a general strike against the government’s cuts agenda.

RMT accused the government of trying to divide public sector and private sector as well as younger and older workers, with better pension deals offered to senior staff.

Younger workers are worst affected by the pension changes as they will have to work until 68 or even 70 and will receive much less as pension accruals will be pegged to CPI not RPI in the future.

“RMT can’t win its pensions strategy on its own,” said general secretary Bob Crow.

“The will has got to come across trade unions.

“This is about a Tory-LibDem ideological attack on working men and women. They

don’t want us to have possessions.”

Young member Jay Patel also flagged the failure to fill vacancies when colleagues change grades or retire that in turn is affecting opportunities for young people to get jobs.

He said: “We believe this is part of a bigger agenda to deskill the workforce and get agency staff in.”

Conference heard that while many transport companies continue to rake in healthy profits at the expense of fare paying passengers there is no excuse not to use some of that profit and employ people to keep our services running and to help the wider economy.

Steven Skelly backed calls for a people’s campaign for jobs recognising that the working class should not become the scapegoats of the recession.

The campaign, passed unanimously, would oppose government plans to force lone parents and others into unsuitable employment and to outsource Job Centre Plus work to the “third sector” and employment agencies.

Submitted by London

Underground Engineering, the campaign calls upon the labour movement to defend young people and their right to decent work by helping to plan, organise and support major public initiatives during the current period of mass unemployment.

Delegates rejected the current government obsession with socalled benefit fraud, noting that 99.4 per cent of the total value of benefits is honestly obtained - a miniscule figure in comparison to the tax fraud by the wealthy.

Mr Crow responded: “This government is wasting young people’s opportunities and their lives. One in four under 25s are unemployed. They need jobs, decent houses and hope”.

The union also suggested linking up with other trade unions and regional TUCs to create a People’s Campaign for Decent Work for All. A pledge to mount a political campaign against the ideology of austerity and argue for a socialist alternative that uses social wealth to meet the needs of working people and their communities was demanded.

Barry Kelly

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AGM 2011 - TORQUAY Jared Wood, Neasden unanimously passed calls to vigorously campaign against the cuts in order to maintain jobs, wages, pensions and conditions.

“This government is making the steepest of cutbacks with 72 per cent of the austerity yet to come. We are only just starting to see the compound effect of the government’s cuts.

“We have got to resist every single attempt at a cut and defend every single job. There is no recession for the rich in this country,” he said.

The union resolved to take whatever action is necessary, including strike action, to defend jobs, pensions and conditions.

Mr Crow added: “The only way we can have real change is through socialism”.

SUPPORT THE WELFARE STATE Unanimous support was given to launch a mass campaign against the government’s ideological attack on the welfare state.

ConDem welfare reforms are driving through massive cuts to benefits affecting the most vulnerable in society.

But conference noted that defeats in the House of Lords against the welfare reform bill proved the value of extraparliamentary pressure.

Andy Littlechild said it was

Ken Slade

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an all-out attack on the welfare state and plans to bring in austerity is going to collapse the economy more and we should ballot for industrial action.

“We need to hit them in the pockets because that’s the only thing that they care about. They certainly don’t care about the disabled or the vulnerable,” he said.

Dean O’Hanlon, Finsbury Park agreed that the union should build a campaign for industrial action and resistance.

Steve West, Manchester South believed the campaign should go one step further and try to improve the welfare system, including social housing, for society’s worst off.

“Don’t let people demonise and isolate the poor and vulnerable in society,” he said.

Oliver New, Piccadilly and District West lambasted the government for creating “fake jobs” under the banner of work experience and outrageous Tory suggestions to get disabled people to work below minimum wage.

NATIONALISE THE BANKS The entire financial sector should be taken into public ownership to prevent the “criminal act against working men and women” that is leaving them in poverty, delegates agreed.

Youth award winner Karl Norendal

They also backed calls to extend the financial sector’s useful services and abolish the “rampant speculation” that generates inflation, instability and ruin for working people.

In addition all tax havens under British jurisdiction should have their special status terminated and made subject to Britain’s tax laws, ending the role banks play in tax avoidance.

Public shareholdings in banks and building societies should be used to secure fundamental changes of policy in the remuneration, lending and investment activities, it was demanded.

Conference noted that successive British governments have pledged around £1,350 billion in financial support to rescue the financial system from collapse since 2008 – equivalent to Britain’s annual gross domestic product, double the annual total public expenditure and six times the disastrous public spending cuts announced for the next four years.

Delegates heard that banks and financial institutions have used public funds mainly for speculation, recapitalisation and bonuses rather than to stimulate

industrial investment and housing.

Oliver New said: “Bankers are thieves and we have only hatred for them. “We’ve got to keep the spotlight on the banks as they are criminals who are leaving people in poverty,” he said.

YOUTH AWARD A workington train driver was awarded RMT’s 2012 Youth Award.

Karl Norendal, 26, who joined the union in 2005, received the John Cogger Award for Youth from the union’s general secretary Bob Crow who said that he had “shone over a period of time not just in the last 12 months”.

Mr Crow added: “Young members are instrumental and paramount for the union, because one day they’ll be sitting where we are now and responsible for the future of RMT.” Accepting the award, Mr Norendal said: “I’ll try not to cry like Kate Winslet”.

CONCESSIONARY BUS TRAVEL Concessionary bus passes for the elderly and disabled should be implemented across Britain.

Delegates pledged to

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

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AGM 2011 - TORQUAY “campaign vigorously” for equal conditions for elderly and disabled concessionary bus passes while fighting against any government attempt to means test them.

Conference also agreed to campaign to allow men and women to qualify for a concessionary pass when they reach 60 even if they are forced to work until they are 65 or 70.

And they demanded a public enquiry into present costs of all UK bus passes, the burden of which falls on the government, City, District and Metropolitan councils with attention to the amount of money involved and the enormous profits raked in by various bus companies.

A wider campaign was also called to be launched by the union and its parliamentary group of MPs to bring down the retirement age to 60 years for a full state pension so that senior citizens can go out and spend their money to help regenerate the economy.

Chris Davidson, Bristol said: “The government is getting you to work until you drop”.

CIVIL LIBERTIES UNDER ATTACK Delegates unanimously opposed government proposals to change the law to allow for “hidden courts” in an emergency motion.

The new powers would give a green light for intelligence agencies to monitor the public’s emails, telephone calls and social media while allowing ministers to decide what materials should be concealed from the public.

But the union warned that introducing such laws would prevent evidence from coming to light that would highlight government interference in cases such as Guantanamo, when the Labour government of the day had instructed MI5 and MI6 to become closely involved in the abduction and torture of terrorism suspects after 9/11.

It would also prevent this kind of information from coming to light in the future.

Gregory Hewitt, Brighton and Hove City said: “It beggars belief that we are introducing a law to allow police to access personal emails.

“We would become a decidedly less free country. It’s the most serious threat to our freedom in the democratic world. Once they get these powers there they’re not going to let go of them.

“The hypocrisy of this Tory government knows no bounds.”

Delegates agreed to instruct the Council of Executives to do everything within their power,

including contacting MPs, to oppose the proposals.

The CoE was also called upon to inform RMT’s wider membership of the government’s attack on civil liberties with special leaflets and articles and submit a similar worded resolution to the TUC conference in autumn.

General secretary Bob Crow added: “A person should be innocent until proven guilty”.

Unanimous calls also went out to stop unscrupulous bus bosses using social networking sites to discipline staff. The union will look into the situation of bus company officials monitoring Twitter sites looking for complaints about their staff before questioning them and asking them to fill out an occurrence reports that can lead to disciplinary action.

DEFEND LEGAL AID Another emergency motion called upon the union to mount a campaign to fight government cuts to legal aid, which will disenfranchise the poorest and most disadvantaged in society.

Conference noted that at a time when those on benefits are being assessed for their “fitness for work” the proposals would effectively abolish legal aid for claimants and leave the most

Welcoming committee chair Dave Gilby addresses conference

vulnerable without recourse to advice when they face a problem claiming state support.

Chris Davidson, said: “The government is trying to price people out of tribunals by denying them access to the legal system.”

It could also lead to tens of thousands of people at greater risk of homelessness with no funding available for advisers, the union warned.

The emergency motion stated that when claimants were given legal advice by organisations such as Citizens Advice the success rate of appeals against work capability assessment decisions rose from 40 per cent to a massive 90 per cent.

Young members attend a course at AGM

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AGM 2011 - TORQUAY SOCIAL HOUSING

Roselyne Fong

Delegates backed calls to oppose anti-working class ConDem legislation including attacks on social housing.

Nick Quirk said: “The deterioration of building homes has led to a whole generation of young people unable to move out of their parents’ houses”.

General secretary Bob Crow said: “There’s a shortage of housing while a million builders are on the dole”.

LGBT RIGHTS

Nick Quirk

Oliver New

Linda Wiles

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Conference unanimously called to support international rights for the lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender community.

Oliver New highlighted United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon’s speech in March calling on all countries around the world to decriminalise consensual samesex relationships and end the discrimination against LGBT people.

He said that in 76 countries being gay is illegal and in 10 of these it is punishable by death or life imprisonment.

LGBT people in regions around the world are victims of violence, such as targeted killings, violent assaults and torture, conference heard.

In St Petersburg, Russia, a law has recently been passed making it illegal to speak in public about being LGBT and across Africa parliaments are advocating laws to penalise and even execute gay people.

Elsewhere, in Iraq religious militias have brutally murdered hundreds of gay men and young men perceived to be gay while the Iranian theocratic regime criminalises and oppresses homosexuality.

Delegates said that human rights are for all people in all countries and proposals to cut aid to countries with anti-gay laws may be counterproductive and are generally not supported

by LGBT groups in those countries.

The union agreed to support campaigns against homophobia

around the world, build solidarity links with LGBT rights campaigners and trade unionists around the world, support and mobilise for appropriate protest actions and raise the issue of their rights at international events that the union attends.

It also pledged to continue supporting LGBT workers and trade union rights in countries such as Iran, while opposing military action against them.

A call to tackle homophobia in schools in Britain through education was also made including running political campaigns to oppose cuts in funding to anti-bullying initiatives.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY Two trade union leaders told conference of the “dramatically high” level of assault on transport workers in the United States.

International President of the Transport Workers Union of America James Little said that US laws do not protect workers, they protect passengers.

He cited a case where one passenger beat a driver to death.

“We’ve got major problems,” he said.

And New York’s Local 100 TWU president John Samuelson said that assaults are “outrageous” and one of the union’s major campaigns.

“The level of assaults are dramatically high,” he said. “But we are going to stop them one way or another”.

Mr Samuelson added that the union won a campaign calling for significant uniformed police presence on buses and trains.

And a ground-breaking framework agreement between RMT and the Trade Union Federation of Polish State Railway Employees in Poland was also signed that pledged to oppose “the liberalisation and privatisation of the transport sector”.

They also agreed to exchange information on organising activities and organisational changes in the national rail

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AGM 2011 - TORQUAY sector as well as provide assistance and support in training processes.

SOLIDARITY WITH HAITI Transport workers called for joint action with the TUC to support the Haitian people’s struggle two-and-a-half years after a devastating earthquake killed over 300,000 people.

Conference heard that many people in the capital Port-auPrince are still homeless and lack basic services and sanitary conditions.

And 7,000 Haitians have been killed by a cholera epidemic, thought to have spread from UN facilities.

Delegates unanimously backed calls to work alongside the TUC to support Haitians in their fight for justice, make contact with grass-roots organisations and demand compensation from the UN. They also called on aid agencies to explain how money has been spent, aid distributed and urged better co-ordination

with other groups.

Bob Law said: “We’ve got to get our finger out to support people in trouble all over the world”.

MATCH WOMEN’S STRIKE Conference agreed to make contact with sister unions Unite and GMB to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the Bow Match Women’s Strike in the form of a rally and commemorative plaque.

TFL branch’s Linda Wiles said: “I’m disgusted at the conditions in which women at the Bryant and May match factory worked.

“They worked a 14-hour day on a wage of less than five shillings a week,” she said.

General secretary Bob Crow expressed willingness to celebrate the event but pointed out that the descendants of these women would currently be represented by GMB and Unite so the union should seek their involvement in any rally.

CASHBACK MEMBERSHIP BENEFIT LAUNCHED AT AGM Bob Crow launched a new membership benefit called RMT Rewards at AGM which gives members cashback on internet shopping.

“This is a new benefit that will allow transport workers to save money when shopping on-line as more and more of us are doing,” he said.

There are over 2,500 online retailers to choose from so whether you are booking your next holiday, buying clothing, grocery shopping or looking for a deal on eBay make sure you are logged in to RMT Rewards.

Here’s how it works: 1. Join for FREE at www.RMTrewards.com 2. Log into to RMTRewards.com, browse thousands of retailers, click on the retailers link and shop online as normal 3. Earn Cashback that is added to your account when you shop online Plus to help you get started the RMT has negotiated for you to receive a Free £10 welcome bonus in your account* – just for signing up. The £10 welcome bonus is paid to you once your cashback amount reaches £25.

For more details see page 10.

WHAT’S NEW ON RMTv Catch the latest video updates on RMT’s own on-line station at www.rmtv.org.uk chAnnEL 1 – RMT In AcTIOn Action for Rail campaign launch. On May 28, 2012 the rail unions - RMT, Aslef, TSSA and Unite - launched the Action for Rail campaign by leafleting train stations nationwide. RMTv caught the launch event at Euston station.

May Day March 2012. RMT took part in the annual May Day march from Clerkenwell Green to Trafalgar Square in London.

Tube Lines – Stand Firm for Equality. RMT General Secretary, Bob Crow, talks to RMTv about the current Tube Lines dispute on London Underground. chAnnEL 2 – nEWs buLLETIns Alex Gordon - RMT President, Alex Gordon address the RMT AGM 2012 in Torquay.

Bob Crow - RMT General Secretary Bob Crow addressing the RMT AGM 2012 during a debate about public sector pensions.

John Samuelsen - Transport Workers Union Local 100 President John Samuelsen from New York addressing the RMT AGM 2012 as an international guest speaker.

John McDonnell MP - Chair of the RMT Parliamentary Group, John McDonnell MP, addresses RMT AGM 2012 and gives a report on the work of the parliamentary group over the last year. chAnnEL 3 – hIsTORy chAnnEL John Carlos: Resistance the best Olympic spirit.

The iconic image of John Carlos & gold medallist Tommie Smith making their protest against racism, poverty & injustice from the podium at the 1968 Mexico Olympics remains as powerful today as it ever was. On 21 May 2012, John Carlos addressed a meeting organised by RMT and spoke about what motivated him then & how things are today.

GET ThE LATEsT fROM RMT AT WWW.fAcEbOOk.cOM/RMTunIOn WWW.TWITTER.cOM/RMTunIOn

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LEGAL

CON DEMS ATTACK EMPLOYMENT RIGHTS Susan Harris of Thompsons Solicitors analyses the recent raft of government employment law reforms The government has embarked on a frenzy of changes intended to help businesses by reducing the obligations they owe their workers. Most will significantly weaken working people’s rights in favour of employers.

The Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Bill, published just weeks after a number of legislative changes took effect on 6 April, represents a further nail in the coffin of effective employment rights in this country and are as damaging as anything done by the Thatcher government.

Most of the provisions were expected as they arose from recent consultations. But the capping of unfair dismissal awards was not. This potentially reduces the current loss of earnings award maximum by at least 65 per cent.

Compensatory awards for unfair dismissal will be capped at between a year and three year’s national annual median earnings (to a maximum of 52 weeks). Median national earnings are £26,000 a year which means (assuming the

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government opts for a year’s cap) that if you are paid £26,000 your compensation will be capped at that. Even if you are paid £52,000 your award will still be capped at £26,000 – ie six months pay.

And if you are low paid and only earn £13,000, it would be capped at £13,000. This ignores entirely any pension loss, which can often be very significant.

The change is deeply unjust.

If a business suffered a loss due to a supplier’s unlawful conduct it would expect reimbursement of the full sum. But if it causes loss to an unfairly dismissed employee it only has to pay them a small part of that sum.

The Bill also allows for different awards to be paid according to employer type, which presumably means that small or “micro” businesses will pay less. Why should someone unfairly dismissed by a business employing less than 10 people be awarded less than someone working for a larger firm?

Although the much leaked proposal of no fault dismissals recommended by Tory venture

capitalist Adrian Beecroft isn’t in the Bill, the extension on 6 April of the qualifying period for unfair dismissal rights from one to two years effectively achieves this for many anyway.

And the government is consulting on bringing it in for micro-businesses, so it is too early to be writing its obituary.

The extension to the qualifying period for unfair dismissal was imposed even though the government’s own impact assessment confirmed that there was no correlation between length of continuous employment and the number of claims.

Likewise, there is no independent evidence to back the business lobby’s claims about the size of unfair dismissal awards. Even Beecroft said in his report, commissioned

by David Cameron, that the level of compensation seemed reasonable. But the cap is being imposed anyway (without the need for parliamentary debate).

Also introduced on April 6 were higher costs awards to businesses in so-called

vexatious tribunal claims; and judges can now sit alone in unfair dismissal claims.

Previously they had to sit with lay members who brought important industrial experience to the panel.

The Enterprise Bill allows judges to sit alone in Employment Appeal Tribunals too.

Employment judges can also now order that a party in an employment tribunal hearing pays their own witness expenses (such as travel and accommodation) whereas these were previously always payable out of public funds.

This will have a far greater impact on workers than it will on employers. The risk of having to pay witness expenses is likely not only to act as a deterrent to employees to pursue legitimate claims but unscrupulous employers could use the threat of claiming expenses to try to deter them from pursuing their claims or to try to force them into accepting an unreasonable settlement.

The provision in the

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 :: Enterprise Bill that gives a tribunal the power to impose a financial penalty on employers if it concludes that the employer has breached the worker’s rights and that the breach has one or more as yet undefined aggravating features is a red herring introduced as a sop to claimants and will be little used by tribunals.

The penalty will normally be 50 per cent of any financial award, to a maximum of £5,000.

Few judges are ever prepared to say that a breach had aggravating features and rogue employers won’t be deterred by the risk of a small financial penalty.

And if they pay 50 per cent of it (to the government, not the claimant) within 21 days, they don’t have to pay the rest.

There’s nothing to stop them doing this but then refusing to pay the compensation to the worker whose rights they breached. Enforcing awards is notoriously difficult and four in ten go unpaid.

Around the corner are further assaults on working people’s rights including a watering down of the Equality Act. A current consultation seeks views on repealing the law on third party harassment, so that employers are no longer liable for the harassment of an employee by a third party, such as a customer.

The Beecroft report indicated where the government may go on weakening collective redundancy and TUPE laws.

Beecroft wants just 30 days consultation regardless of how many employees are being made redundant, reduced to five days if the business is becoming insolvent.

Meaningful consultation periods allow for unions and employers to work together to save jobs or to explore with other agencies options around retraining and other employment.

You would have thought that it’s an approach that the government of a country in double dip recession would want to encourage as opposed to getting workers out of the door as fast as possible.

RMTnews

President’s column

ADDRESSING THE UNION’S PARLIAMENT At the Annual General Meeting we analyse and confront threats that working people face - attacks on wages, pensions, public services and workers’ rights from a class enemy that seeks to turn the clock back to an era before the 1930s. Our democracy is our greatest weapon in the fight to defend our class and our society.

Delegates to RMT’s AGM, guided by our rule book, decide the strategy and political trajectory of our union and take them back into our branches, our workplaces, trades councils and communities.

Shortly after last year’s AGM we heard disgraceful news of the government’s award of ‘preferred bidder’ status in the Thameslink train-building contract to Siemens under tough EU procurement rules.

RMT has exposed the cronyism and corruption that surrounds use of EU procurement rules to award contracts to foreign companies backed by British ‘venture capitalists’ such as the firm involved in the Siemens bid, ‘3i’, chaired by a personal and political ally of the Prime minister.

Yet we still await ‘final confirmation’ of the Thameslink contract - a lesson surely, that as the global financial crisis spins out of control, procurement contracts built on Eurozone credit are vulnerable to loss of confidence and the volatility of global markets.

Today, with our rail system needing massive renewal and modernisation, we need to remind politicians who grandstand on public investment in new high-speed rail schemes, that ‘if you don’t own it, you can’t control it’.

How disappointing therefore to hear Labour Shadow Transport spokesperson, Maria Eagle, MP unveiling ‘devolution’ as the centrepiece of Labour’s Transport Policy Review - a continuation of that party’s slavish devotion to the market, privatisation, big business and another wasted opportunity.

In July last year RMT revealed Sir Roy McNulty’s ‘rail review’, commissioned by a Labour government, will lead to savage cuts to over 20,000 railway jobs, a wholesale attack on safety and engineering integrity with huge increases in fares as private train companies are given free rein to plunder the network for even greater profits .

In August RMT’s fight for justice for Jarvis workers led an employment tribunal to

award £3 million in lieu of redundancy notice, which still does not compensate our members for the millions owed in back pay. RMT will press on with our campaign to win back jobs for workers who should have been transferred to Network Rail or to other contractors under TUPE. The union can also be proud of the campaign to secure a living wage and union recognition for cleaners working for sub-contract companies, a consistent and continuing struggle throughout the past year with impressive results.

In February, on the eighth anniversary of the Tebay disaster which killed four RMT members, we renewed our call for secondary protection to prevent death and injury by ’runaways’, following yet another potentially fatal incident.

Yet, the European Commission is now creating the same conflict of interest between safety and commercial regulation across the railway administrations of all EU member states, as part of its ‘Re-cast’ 1st Rail Liberalisation Package.

RMT warned all along that rail privatisation was not a bizarre British eccentricity, but rather a determined EU policy trialled in Britain to be imposed across the EU. Today some 20 per cent of French rail freight is privatised and the EU is pressing ahead with a 4th rail liberalisation package enforcing privatisation of passenger rail services.

Our call from last year’s AGM for a referendum on Britain’s EU membership has now moved to the centre of British politics. And just along the coast from here at Paignton in 1979 our predecessors at that year’s AGM of the National Union of Railwaymen backed a campaign for Britain’s withdrawal from the European Common Market, as it was then known.

Ultimately, national independence is required for democracy to flourish.

National independence should play a decisive role in the defeat of the parasitic class, which has no more interest in the fortunes of workers and their families than an economic army of occupation.

As Karl Marx said: “Democracy is the road to socialism”. The battle for democracy is yet to be won, but the army of labour is crying out for the battle to be rejoined.

This is an abridged version of the president’s AGM address which can be viewed on RMTv. Alex Gordon

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RMT’S BIGGEST-EVER LGBT CONFERENCE SETS OUT PLAN OF ACTION plan of public campaigning and a high-profile presence at Pride events were the keynote decisions at RMT’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender conference – the biggest in its history.

A contagious mood of activity and growth permeated the gathering, which pledged solidarity with working people fighting for LGBT rights at home and abroad.

Conference chair noted that the LGBT committee had gained 12 new members, was planning a major presence at Pride in London on July 7 and at Tolpuddle, and had been involved in Pride events at Bristol and Blackpool.

General secretary Bob Crow paid tribute to the growing strength of the conference, which was now an established part of the RMT family.

UK workers were facing a “tsunami of attacks” from the government, warned Bob, and RMT members needed to brace themselves to resist a massacre of jobs, pay and conditions threatened by the McNulty proposals now enshrined as government policy.

The union also faced the pernicious attack on legal rights, including the imposition of tribunal fees and other changes that would cost the union well over £1 million a year.

Work still needed to be done to ensure that vacancies on the LGBT advisory committee were filled, delegates agreed.

Regional organisers should supply details of strategies for organising against homophobia and for equality, and members of the advisory committee should attend regional councils to promote its work.

The union needed to be proactive in promoting the LGBT committee and its work, said Jo Parry, TfL No 1 “There are too many areas that don’t send people to the committee and we need to do

A

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LGBT members at London Pride 2012

the work to get these vacancies filled,” said Mark Beresford, Bedlington, adding: “I can’t believe that I am the only gay man in Network Rail.”

Janine Booth, Council of Executives, underlined the importance of understanding that LGBT rights had to be fought for over decades, and ensuring that LGBT issues were built into all the union’s education courses.

Janine reported that the new membership form would now include a question on sexual orientation, emphasising that information gathered would be kept confidential.

The struggle against homophobia was a world-wide one, delegates agreed, pledging to build solidarity links with LGBT rights campaigners and trade unionists around the world.

Gay rights activists were reporting an alarming trend of worsening of LGBT rights in many countries, said Paul Penny, Stratford No 1.

Homosexuality was illegal in 37 African countries, and in many countries there were increasing levels of violence against LGBT people, encouraged by bigoted religious and political leaders.

“Colonialism didn’t bring homosexuality to Africa, it brought homophobia there,” said Paul.

Marriage should be defined as ‘a union between consenting adults’, conference agreed, calling on the union to campaign for equal marriage rights.

The sad saga that nearly saw ‘gay cure’ adverts on London buses was condemned.

Delegates called for TfL to have clear guidelines in place so that such offensive ads could never be published, and for the union to express its disgust to TfL. EDUCATE TO ERADICATE HOMOPHOBIA RMT should support the work of Diversity Role Models charity,

which seeks to break down homophobia and gender-based bullying through education, conference agreed. AGM Bullying and harassment of young LGBT people was rife in schools, and they were three times more likely to attempt suicide, John Stack, Finsbury Park, pointed out.

“This work helps massively to break down the stereotyping that is so damaging to young people,” said Tony Parris South Hants The work of the 17-24-30 Organisation in challenging hate-crime was outlined by guest speaker Mark Healey, who urged support for its fourth annual vigil, to be held on October 20.

The campaign, named after dates of nail bombs targeted against the black, Asian and gay communities in Brixton, Brick Lane and Soho in April 1999, aimed to unite communities against hate crime and had generated massive support.

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

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JOIN RMT

BRITAIN’S SPECIALIST TRANSPORT UNION Visit www.rmt.org.uk to join online or call the helpline on freephone

0800 376 3706 Problems at work? Call the helpline (Now with two operators) Keep your RMT membership details up-to-date In the light of draconian anti-trade union laws that have been used against the union, members should keep their personal data up to date. It also important to note that in order to keep members informed your union requires your mobile telephone number and email address.

Members can do this via the RMT website, telephone the RMT helpline above, or writing to the membership department at RMT head office, Chalton Street, London NW1 1JD.

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BUILDING THE UNION

RMT branch secretaries discuss building the union and servicing the members RMT branch and regional secretaries met at their annual conference recently in a sundrenched Bristol to discuss improving services for the members and strengthening the union.

Meeting in Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s boardroom at Temple Meads station, conference secretary Jim Phelps said that branch officials were on the frontline as the first point of contact for most members.

He said he was pleased with the good attendance but urged more branch secretaries to come to next year’s annual meeting in Bournemouth next May. “The more branch secretaries

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come to this event the more we can help each other,” he said.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the conference played a crucial role in allowing officials to informally discuss best practice in running branches and dealing with issues and problems that arise.

He reported that a new branch secretaries’ handbook was being produced and a pilot scheme was in the pipeline to make electronic books, kindles, available.

“Branch secretaries are a cornerstone of the union that can help recruit transport workers into the RMT,” he said.

Education officer Andy Gilchrist outlined plans to

expand the union capacity to educate members and develop workplace reps.

He said that the union’s education centre in Doncaster was being expanded to allow two courses to be run at the same time.

“We have lay tutors involved in a collective learning process that equips members with core skills.

“This makes a real difference at the workplace and gives members a better service and protection at work.

“I would ask all branch secretaries to encourage all members to take up courses the union provides both in the regions and at Doncaster,” he

said.

Susan Harris of Thompsons solicitors outlined the scale of the attacks on workers’ rights planned by the Con Dem government including charging fees for workers taking up tribunals against employers, making it easier to sack people, abolishing industrial panels and watering down TUPE legislation.

“This is a huge ideological attack on the trade union movement but it also means that workers will need more protection and require trade unions that are prepared to fight for their interests,” she said.

Next year’s RMT branch and regional secretaries takes place in May 2013 in Bournemouth.

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LEGAL VICTORIES

RMT wins millions of pounds for members each year in legal cases DIVER WINS COMPENSATION A diver member has won nearly half a million pounds compensation under a collective agreement with RMT known as the Offshore Diving Industry Agreements (ODIA).

The member suffered an accident in the North Sea in 2004 and was also diagnosed with a psychological disorder which caused him to lose his certificate of fitness.

This prevented his return to work and a £400,000 claim for personal injury was settled in the Scottish Court in 2006.

An additional claim was pursued in a collective agreement dating from 1984 which provides for the payment of a lump sum by Lloyds to divers who lose their certificates of fitness, and therefore their livelihoods, as a result of injuries sustained during the course of their work.

These payments are made regardless of fault and not as part of a personal injury claim.

A firm of underwriters acting on behalf of Lloyds rejected the member’s claim for payment under the ODIA on the grounds that the agreement was meant to cover physical injuries only and not psychological injuries. The union lodged a complaint with the Insurance Ombudsman, who found in the member’s favour at first instance, but in the defendant’s favour on appeal.

RMT then pursued a claim in the Central London County Court and the claimant was handed down

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the further sum of £45,000 together with costs.

• £275,000 was awarded to a member who incurred a serious injury after an elevated platform on which he was working collapsed. The member was repairing overhead power lines when the hydraulic arm supporting the platform gave way.

Falling 20 feet the member suffered multiple soft tissue injuries to the head, chest, neck, arms, legs and spine. After refusal of the other side’s insurers to enter negotiations the matter went to court.

• After contracting mesothelioma (a cancer caused by exposure to asbestos) one member was awarded £257,500.

The issue was resolved out of court after RMT’s legal team instigated negotiations with the other side’s representatives and a settlement was reached.

• A member who witnessed a likely suicide suffered psychiatric injuries after the train she was driving ran over a person who was lying on the track.

The driver, who was unable to return to work, contacted the union who helped her case through the CICA process, culminating in compensation of £123,995.

• A female member employed as a Passenger Services Vehicle driver was awarded £8,500 after suffering an elbow injury. The injury, which

required surgery, was sustained in her cab whilst attempting to adjust the excessively stiff seat adjustment lever. After a refusal of negotiation by the other side’s insurers court proceedings were initiated and the union secured this victory.

• Hand/Arm Vibration Syndrome is an industrial injury affecting tens of thousands of workers. One member who was employed as a Track Man developed the syndrome after continuous use of equipment such as drills, nut runners, saws, disc cutters and wacker plates. RMT commenced court proceedings, resulting in compensation of £12,000.

• £8,500 was awarded to a member in an out of court settlement after he slipped on ice at work.

The ice, which had not been cleared, sanded or gritted, was located at the front of the station where the member fell, causing a fracture to his left upper arm • A member developed pleurisy and her GP and Occupational Health instructed her employers that she should remain on light office duties.

This was ignored with the member being placed on passenger assistance tasks. In one such task the member was injured, exacerbating her pleurisy.

The member was awarded £2,000.

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

RMTnews

LEEDS LEARNERS LEAD RMT members in Leeds celebrate gaining educational qualifications RMT Learning hosted a celebration at Leeds station for local rail workers that had gained qualifications on union learning courses during the past six months.

Learners were presented with their certificates by course tutors, Paula Proud and Alison Aldred. Also attending the event were the local RMT Union Learning Representatives (ULRs), members of the Learning and Development Teams from Northern Rail and East Coast and the Northern Rail Commercial Director, Jonathon Stewart.

Working in partnership with Leeds City College and Manchester College, RMT Learning and the local Union Learning Representatives,

Mohammed Ilyas (Northern Rail) and Trish Morgan (East Coast) had set up learning programmes within the station to accommodate local railworkers that were unable to attend courses at their local colleges due to their complex shift patterns.

Employees from Northern Rail, East Coast and Network Rail have recently gained qualifications in computer skills (ITQ), and literacy and numeracy. All the learners felt that the courses were enjoyable and that they are now more confident using computers.

Daren Roden, a conductor for Northern Rail, stated that he has gained a lot from the courses, ‘before the computer course I had very little knowledge about

computers, but now I feel a lot more confident using them and this will help me if I apply for promotion’. Neil Proverbs, said that ‘the maths course has helped to refresh my skills after a long time out of education’, and Surjeet Singh Puee, a Northern Rail Driver, said that ‘the courses were really useful and made me more aware of my grammar and spelling, I enjoyed it thoroughly!’ All of the learners are keen to continue with their learning and enrol on new courses.

Regional Development Worker for RMT Learning Graham Chesters, who organised the day along with local ULRs, said that it had been a good opportunity to celebrate the achievements of the learners and to recognise the hard work and commitment they have put in to gain their qualifications.

“The local RMT ULRs, Mohammed Ilyas and Trish Morgan, and course tutors, Paula and Alison should also be commended for all their efforts to ensure these courses were successful,” he said.

Graham negotiated a £50 payment for employees at Northern Rail and East Coast who successfully complete their first literacy or numeracy qualification.

“This incentive payment recognises the importance of having these qualifications, as they are normally the starting point for most adults when returning to education, giving them the underpinning skills and confidence to move on to higher level learning.

“Good English and maths skills are important in work, and increasingly at home, with a rise in written communications such as e-mail and the need to understand how to calculate the best deals and not get ripped off by ruthless loan companies and complex tariffs on bills,” he said.

If you would like more information about this, or other courses that are running in your area, please contact your local ULR or the RMT Learning Team: on 020 7529 8820 /l.rutland@rmt.org.uk

QUALIFICATIONS: the picture features a selection of the learners from Northern Rail after receiving their certificates and Graham Chesters (RMT Learning Development Worker - North), Mo Ilyas (RMT Union Learning Representative – Northern Rail) and the course tutors – Alison Aldred (The Manchester College) and Paula Proud (Leeds City College) and Jonathon Stewart (Commercial Director – Northern Rail)

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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

RMTnews

POLITICAL SCHOOL Colin Waite urges other members to attend RMT’s political school at the union’s education centre in Doncaster I was one of twelve RMT members from many different grades and sectors attending RMT’s political school in Doncaster earlier this year.

Here are a few of the comments made by other students: “The RMT political school was everything I expected and more, broaden my knowledge of our political system including how bills and laws are proposed and debated.

“I would encourage other members to apply for the course as it covers many aspects of how trade unions can, with effective campaigning, affect our political system for the better,” Mike Wallace London and Orient branch.

“I found this course a great eye opener and would recommend it to any member of the union, meeting John McDonnell MP at the House of Commons was a pleasure and to see people fighting our corner in parliament gives us some hope,” Lee Davison, Dover Shipping branch.

The week-long, residential

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course began with a presentation by union president Alex Gordon on the political and social history of the union.

Professor Roger Seifert generated a very lively and thought-provoking discussion about the Labour movement and the recession. This seemed to occupy much of our time on whether the Labour party was doing anything for working people? We all had very different ideas, and how the union was building up support for at least challenging those in power.

Glasgow Labour MP Ian Davidson MP addressed the school via video link-up and he went into the work of the RMT political group. A few members from Scotland debated what could and should happen with the railway system north of the border particularly in the case of Scottish independence.

Brian Denny delivered a presentation covering the European Union and the growing economic crisis. He explained how democracy was being eroded and national

political systems were being overridden by unelected EU institutions.

The Justice for Colombia campaign also led a session about the situation in that country where trade unionists are killed regularly.

It was very moving to see and hear what people are prepared to suffer for their fellow workers in very difficult circumstances. The rise of the far right across Europe is also something that we need to be aware of and its effect on the workplace and in our lives.

Derek Kotz of RMT’s communication department outlined how to deal with the media.

He said that it was important to make sure all the facts were correct, unlike some national papers. There were also workshops on dealing with the media, producing branch newsletters and explaining why and how we campaign.

This was followed by a tour of the House of Commons and a visit to meet John McDonnell MP. We discussed the work of

RMT’s parliamentary group and how it speaks for our members concerns and lobbies for legislation. The message was that it was important that we chase up our local MPs on things that are important to us and our families.

All in all a great course, so go on put your name down for the next one in October.

Remember its gives you a chance to expand your knowledge, As well as your waist at Doncaster.

The following students were on the course: Jim McDaid, Bakerloo, Colin Waite, Blackpool & Fylde Coast, Lee Davison, Dover Shipping, Richard Burns, Glasgow 5, Anthony Kilmore, Humber Shipping, George Marshall, Leeds Goods Cartage, Michael Wallace, London and Orient, Jessica Basterfield, LUL Engineering, Brian Pascoe, Penzance No 1, Andrew Clare, South West & South Wales Shipping, Sampson Enni, Waterloo, Paul Bell, Finsbury Park.

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

RMTnews

FREE THE MIAMI 5 Wives of Miami Five, unfairly imprisoned in the United States, guests of honour at RMT Cuba garden party Among the guests at this year’s packed Cuba garden party at Maritime House in south London were the wives of the Miami Five, Cubans imprisioned in the US for trying to stop ultra-right wing groups based in Florida from carrying out terrorist attacks on the socialist island.

On September 12 1998, the Miami Five – Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, René González, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González – were arrested by the FBI in Miami on bogus spying charges.

Whilst René has been released from prison – although he remains unjustifiably held in Florida on parole – his four colleagues remain unfairly

interned within the US. Their wives, Adriana Perez, Olga Salanueva, Elizabeth Palmiero and Rosa Freijanes, and family are denied full visitation rights and they are often held in solitary confinement.

For over 50 years, right-wing émigré groups in Miami have targeted Cuba killing nearly 3,500 people in terrorist attacks with the complicit support of the US government and the CIA. To save lives, Cuba sent five men to infiltrate and monitor these violent groups. At the request of the US government, this information was passed to the FBI but – instead of arresting the terrorists – the Bureau used the information to identify and arrest the Miami Five.

Held in isolation, denied proper access to legal teams and tried in a hostile atmosphere which made it impossible to receive a fair trial, they were sentenced to a total of 75 years confinement. Compare this to the terrorist and former CIAoperative Luis Posada Carriles who – although responsible for the blowing up of a Cuban airliner in 1973 which killed 76 people – remains at liberty in the States.

The British trade union movement has led the campaign to Free the Five, grant family visitation rights and allow René to return to his homeland.

The Cuba Solidarity Campaign (CSC) has been building the broadest possible alliance in support of family

visitation rights, René’s return to Cuba and, ultimately, the release of the Miami Five.

Here are some ways to support the Miami Five: • Affiliate your branch to the Cuba Solidarity Campaign on their website, the best way to support the Five and campaign against the illegal US blockade of Cuba.

• Become an individual member of CSC for just £20 per year and receive CubaSi magazine four times per year.

• Make an online donation to the campaign to Free the Five Web address: www.cubasolidarity.org.uk E-mail: office@cuba-solidarity.org.uk Telephone: 0208 800 0155

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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

RMTnews

IRANIAN TRADE UNIONISTS WIN FREEDOM ranian trade unionists thanked RMT recently for demanding the release of imprisoned comrades, a call which led to a number of them winning their freedom.

Writing to the union, one of their wives Zohre Asadpoor thanked RMT for its strong support of imprisoned labour activists in Iran.

“As you may know, most of them have been released including my husband.

“He believes without your support they would be in the prison for a long time and I pass on his thanks to you,” she wrote.

Last March RMT affiliated to the Committee for Defence of the Iranian People’s Rights (CODIR), which campaigns for peace, human rights and democracy in Iran.

CODIR was established in 1981 by a group of British labour and trade union activists along with Iranian democrats living in exile.

The main aim of the organisation since its inception has been to provide information and analysis about the reality of life in Iran. CODIR campaigned against the eight-year fratricidal Iran-Iraq war. It has also worked hard against the brutal

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suppression of human rights and other abuses committed by the regime in Iran. CODIR campaigns have won the support of many progressive MPs, MEPs, trade unions and trades councils.

Addressing this year’s annual general meeting, RMT president Alex Gordon said: “Last year we issued a clear call from our AGM for freedom for trade unionists who are prisoners of conscience in Iran.

“Freedom for Reza Shehabi!

Freedom for Ebrahim Medadi!

And that call was heard in Iran.

Comrade Shehabi, the Treasurer of the Tehran Bus Drivers’ Union had been on dry hunger strike to highlight his case since last year.

“The Iranian regime continues to attack workers’ rights and on June 15 brutally attacked members of the Coordinating Committee to Help Form Workers' Organisations in the city of Karaj while they were holding their annual general meeting.

“All 60 arrested were delegates from different provinces, especially from Kurdistan, Tehran and Gillan.

“The Coordinating Committee is a well-known independent labour organisation in Iran,

Addressing this year’s annual general meeting, RMT president Alex Gordon

formed in 2005 with the open support and signature of thousands of workers; it is not a clandestine group, many of its members are nationally and internationally well-known, like veteran labour activist Mahmoud Salehi who was beaten viciously during the raid as well as Mohammad Abdipour, Jalal Hosseini.

“The repression by the Islamic Republic of Iran is part

of their overall strategy of repression of workers' struggles in Iran against ever-increasing poverty, mass unemployment, discrimination, repression and the government's austerity and neo-liberal policies.

“We stand with the working class of Iran and against imperialist forces in Britain and the West calling for war in Iran and the Middle East,” he said.

YOUNG MEMBERS IN IRELAND delegation of young RMT members recently spent a weekend in the town of Kells, and the village of Crossakiel for a political educational course looking at the life of Jim Connell, the man who dedicated his life to trade unionism and fighting for the rights of workers.

Those attending were Ashley Farrant Plymouth No. 1, Becky Hartley Exeter Rail, Caroline Godzisz Exeter Rail, Deborah

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French Stratford No. 1 and Steve Everett Paddington No. 1.

For festival included a march around Crossakiel with other trade unions and political movement groups, ending with speeches from Colm Keaveney of the Irish Labour Party, David Hopper of the Durham NUM and our very own Bob Crow.

Steve Everett said that it was great to go to the place where Jim Connell, author of the song “The Red Flag”, was raised.

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2012 ::

CD OFFER TO RMT MEMBERS

RMTnews

EIRE SHIPPING BRANCH NOMINATES

We’re All In It Together is a stunning, overtly political 33 track double CD featuring some of Britain’s most renowned and respected artists, including Eddi Reader, Thea Gilmore, Paul Heaton (Beautiful South) and Show of Hands, who have come together to ‘protest and survive’.

PETER PINKNEY FOR NATIONAL PRESIDENT

BRIGHTON AND HOVE CITY NOMINATE

This benefit album for the Morning Star newspaper – named after the spurious term uttered at the 2010 Tory Party conference by David Cameron – explodes the myth that culture is no longer political.

GARRY HASSELL FOR SOUTH EAST REGIONAL ORGANISER

With an introduction by veteran campaigner Tony Benn, these songs support peace and democracy, oppose corporate power, support freedom of speech, expose the harm caused by greedy banks and highlight their effects on ordinary people. All artists donated their tracks.

We’re All In It Together is available to RMT members for just £12. Send cheques made payable to Red Planet Records to c/o Unity House, 39 Chalton Street London NW1 1JD.

£50 PRIZE CROSSWORD

SOUTH LONDON RAIL BRANCH NOMINATES

PAUL COX FOR SOUTH EAST REGIONAL ORGANISER

No. 78 solution...

The winner of prize crossword no. 78 is C Parry, Newton Abbot.

Send entries to Prize Crossword, RMT, Unity House, 39 Chalton Street, London NWI IJD by August 28 with your name and address.

Winner and solution in next issue.

No. 79. Set by Elk

ACROSS 1 Frances - will take over from 21 in 2013 (6) 5 Green-skinned cylindrical salad ‘vegetable’ in the gourd family (8) 9 Individual or firm providing goods or services to another often as a device to lower wages (10) 10 Gas used in strip-lighting (4) 11 Device to keep the rain off (8) 12 Device used to create leak-proof seal between two parts of an engine or other machine (6) 13 Make attempt on goal, or discharge firearm (5) 15 TUC general secretary 1973-84 (3,6) 18 Small red berry grown for its juice (9) 20 Rate of travel (5) 22 Norman, took over from 15 in 1984 (6) 24 Empty or remove (particularly people, in an emergency) (8) 26 Connery, Lazenby, Moore, Dalton, Brosnan, Craig (and Niven) (4) 27 Micro-organic compound used to fight diseases (10)

28 Burial place (8) 29 Upshot, consequence, score at the final whistle (6) DOWN 2 Low level of light (or spirit) (5) 3 PM (9) 4 Twelve-monthly (6) 5 Modest dwelling, usually associated with countryside (7) 6 Poker, bridge or cribbage, for example (4,4) 7 Succeeded 22 in 1993 (5) 8 Clear of all blame (9) 14 Non-meat-eating creature (9) 16 Manifesting (with applause?) great joy or delight (9) 17 Convince; change someone’s mind (8) 19 Act of coming back into the atmosphere (2-5) 21 Followed 7 in 2003 (6) 23 Deep-bowled spoon used to serve liquid foods (5) 25 Court proceeding; sporting ‘audition’ (5)

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A GOOD TIME TO JOIN THE RMT CREDIT UNION? After the payday loans scandal involving interest rates of over 4,000 per cent and the PPI scam, high street banks are now becoming engulfed in a new market-rigging scandal.

Barclays Bank has been a particular focus of claims of traders manipulating markets and cheating customers, forcing leading bankers like Bob Diamond to resign. The investigation is now spreading to the Bank of England and government circles, leading to working people to lose trust in banking institutions in general.

The RMT Credit Union is different. It is a bank run by RMT members for RMT members.

There are no characters like Gordon Ghekko

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from the film Wall Street using your money to frantically gamble on international stock markets for their own enrichment. The Credit Union exists to promote saving and responsible borrowing. Thousands of RMT members have joined to take advantage of this service and the Credit Union has amassed around ÂŁ2 million to help you save and borrow.

Why not join today by filling in the form on the opposite page?

A FUTURE THAT WORKS! October 20, 2012 Mass demonstration against austerity in London The TUC is organising a mass demonstration against austerity in London on Saturday 20 October 20 2012. A march through central London will culminate in a rally in Hyde Park.

BRING YOUR BANNERS