Workers' Liberty

Network Rail operational workers are gearing up for a fight on pay – and on other issues.

As we reported in the last OTR, the process of ‘harmonisation’ of pay and conditions in Network Rail maintenance has dragged on for years.

New bosses, same bad attitude

Network Rail has sacked long-standing RMT activist Albert Lingard in an act of blatant victimisation.

The Railway Pensions Commission has published its final report. While ATOC and Network Rail have welcomed it, issuing similarly-worded press releases, the unions have not.

First Great Western, First Capital Connect, First TransPennine Express, First ScotRail, Hull Trains, FTR, First Bus, First Student UK, ...

Following the massive strike movement of last Autumn which ended in stalemate, French rail workers are preparing for the next round.

Women in rail and transport work in a male-dominated industry. The higher grades especially are dominated by men.

Private companies’ drive to make profit has attacked our pay and conditions. With more use of agency and temporary staff, our jobs are becoming more casual.

London Underground workers are gearing up for strike action against a raft of management attacks.

Across the rail industry, station staff are being cut and casualised.

Rail workers know that our employers will risk life and limb (ours, not theirs!) to keep the trains running and the cash coming in. We can not trust them to protect us at work - we have to rely on ourselves.

EWS is being taken over by the German state owned operator DB. At a recent meeting Transnet (the German rail union) briefed ASLEF on the implications for EWS. As Tosh McDonald (ASLEF vice president) reports, any existing management that doesn’t fit in with how Railion (DB’s railfreight group) run things is quickly shown the door. This has then been followed by workforce cuts and reductions in locations.

A month before the end of the franchise, ASLEF is balloting its members on Central Trains for industrial action.

86.9% of drivers at Midland Mainline have voted for strike action to force the company to enhance pension provision in line with previous pay improvements. ASLEF’s executive has named a series of one day strikes every Thursday for six weeks starting on 25 October.

The working class needs a voice in politics. Labour used to go some way to being a workers’ party: it had workers in it, unions could vote on and make policy at Labour conference.

Unions and local Labour Parties have voted to ban themselves from submitting motions on current political issues to Labour Party conference. All the formal powers that conference once held to determine party policy will be transferred to the leadership, which will only have to ‘consult’ with the National Policy Forum, itself a well-controlled and largely impermeable body. These proposals have finished off Labour Party conference as a serious political event. They are an attempt to finally destroy the Labour Party as a democratic political organisation based on the labour movement.

A member of RMT’s LU Engineering branch explains why it has relaunched the CFDU (Campaign for a Fighting Democratic Union)

As we write, the Communication Workers’ Union postworkers' dispute looks set to end with a deal that gives Royal Mail virtually everything they want.

Between 50 and 60% cent of the population identify as ‘working class’. Despite the term ‘working class’ vanishing completely from the language of the Labour Party, the proportion claiming this now-unspoken identity has been fairly stable since the 1950s.

To be working class is to be at one pole of a pair. The other pole is the capitalist class.

Metronet

Infrastructure consortium Metronet is in administration. Metronet workers held solid strike action, backed by other grades of Tube workers, and forced guarantees.

RMT’s Executive is consulting about the constituencies from which delegates to the union’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) are chosen.

It is now five years since Network Rail replaced Railtrack – so why are workers still stuck on different terms and conditions according to which company or region you worked in half a decade ago?!

The Railway Pensions Committee has produced its first report, having scrutinised submissions from trade unions, employers and government. In general, it is a summation of and commentary on those submissions with additional sections covering the historical and legal background.

Early July will see a conference to found a National Shop Stewards’ Network. Rank-and-file organisation like this is essential to making our unions more responsive to workers’ needs.

This initiative came from a conference hosted by RMT which discussed the crisis in working-class political representation.

It could be a major step forward in organising the rank and file to revitalise our unions the better to fight the employers and their incessant attacks.

Across the country, companies are steadily de-staffing our stations - and it is high time that the unions broke their silence and called a halt to it.

Many rural and small stations are now unstaffed, leaving no-one to sell tickets, help passengers, pass on service info or request special stop orders when previous trains are cancelled.

Employers replace human beings with central announcements and self-service machines; and replace directly-employed station staff with low-waged agency workers either on site or in call centres.

Network Rail is withholding bonuses from two groups of workers in an action of anti-union spite and scapegoating. As the company - supposedly 'not-for-profit' - reported record profits, NWR refused maintenance workers in the Grayrigg area their £400 bonus and docked £300 from Scottish signallers and supervisors who took strike action earlier this year.

In April, RMT called off strike action on Metronet after management capitulated. The union had demanded the Infraco drop its plan to transfer the employment of 49 Duty Depot Managers to Bombardier, one of its component companies. Metronet agreed not to go ahead with the transfer.

Trade unions are democratic bodies - unlike, say, employers! All have rule books which, though they could be improved, allow members to have a vote in electing their representatives and deciding policy. But not only do we need to improve union democracy, we must defend it against abuse. Examples:

Off The Rails supporters met on May 5th in Birmingham. Under the title “Making our unions fit to fight”, the meeting brought together activists from various disputes to share experiences and discuss how we could make the unions more effective and membership-led.