As we reported in the last OTR, the process of ‘harmonisation’ of pay and conditions in Network Rail maintenance has dragged on for years. This has saved the company money, denying pay rises that workers are due. But the unions have no such excuse. The officers responsible for the issue have shown weak leadership and little initiative.

RMT will hold a special engineering grades conference in March, which will be a chance for rank-and-file reps to demand an end to the indecision. Management’s final document will doubtless fall short of the levelling-up that workers deserve, so the union must produce a coherent counter-document, put together by ‘cherry-picking’ the best terms and conditions from the former employers and demanding them as standard for everyone.

Then we can move to industrial action, preferably co-ordinated with our workmates on the operational side.