Following a meeting of all its LU reps, RMT has decided to ballot its members for strike action and action short of strike over the pay offer (1.5% this year, 0.5% next year).
This is our chance to have a say over our pay until 2011.
RMT is balloting for strike action because to simply reject the deal is not enough. We need to show LUL that there will be consequences if nothing improves.
The union needs to get on with the ballot and keep members informed. This dispute has dragged out too long already. The last thing we want is for our potential action to clash with Christmas. We don't want to upset working class people's last-minute shopping, but London's financial centre.
It is possible that anti-union laws may rear their head again and force us to have a long ballot period because the postal strikes will cause delays. This is another reason why we would want strike ballots in the workplace, yet another thing prevented by Thatcher’s anti-union laws.
TSSA have accepted the offer but many TSSA members on Metronet report not receiving ballot papers. Ordinary TSSA members should join RMT's fight by respecting picket lines or signing up for membership, even if temporarily.
We wait to see whether ASLEF will accept LUL's offer. Either way, we need to appeal to ordinary ASLEF members: RMT should write an open letter to them, and call meetings open to all who are prepared to fight for a decent pay increase.
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On TfL, RMT has rejected the pay offer (1.5% this year, 0.5% for years two and three) but is a minority union. Some reps now just say ‘we need to work with the other unions’.
Although a minority, RMT should not behave as if it is ineffective and no different to other unions. Members joined RMT because it fights; it should not risk losing them.
Comments
LU and TfL pay
You seem to be suggesting that RMT should NOT work with other unions. Funny sort of idea of solidarity!!! Maybe if RMT worked a bit closer with others it wouldn't be in the mess its in now? As for TSSA members crossing picket lines, they should definitely not do so but, after the last RMT strike, I would have thought the priority was making sure RMT members don't go into work! RMT has lost loads of members due to its failure to work with other unions and by lying to its members over the dispute and by being far too top down. ASLEF and TSSA must be laughing. Maybe you should get real and ask why tube workers should take more action when RMT is delivering nothing in return? The only winners at the moment are Hendy, Johnson and the TfL bosses.
Not so
No so. We are arguing that the unions should work together, but that if the other unions will not fight over pay, then RMT will have to fight alone rather than give up. There is a really easy type of unity: all the unions do nothing. But it is not a unity that will win anything for workers.
You will notice that Tubeworker frequently criticises RMT, including for some of the reasons you mention eg. for being top-down. Yes, RMT can sometimes be overly hostile to the other unions, but those other unions are just as bad. Instructing your members to cross another union's picket lines (as ASLEF did) or accepting a pay offer that the other unions have rejected (as TSSA has done) are much worse crimes against cross-union unity than anything RMT might have done.
ASLEF and TSSA laughing?! What, because recruiting a few scabs from the only union that has fought over these crucial issues is funny is it?! Actually, RMT's membership is growing: so some people leave because they don't want to strike, and others join because they do. Surely the union is better off with those who want to fight and without those who don't!