The present terms and conditions of the engineering grades under Network Rail are going to be up for grabs unless the leadership of our union starts to organise and publicise the best and worst of them.

Most union members do not know how to get information and find out what conditions are worth defending and where we need to fight to improve them or level them up. Why should a worker have to give up a better rate of pay while at the same time seeing the fat cats' pay go through the roof?

Management are not going to look out for our interests and will seek to drive down our Terms and Conditions to the lowest common denominator and at the cheapest rate.

A common ploy is to say that while the 'old hands' retain, on a personal basis, the old T&Cs, all new starters will only receive what is deemed by management to be a fair rate: ie. less pay for the same job.

This is not good enough. We have fought for these rates of pay as well as for holiday entitlement, sick pay and pensions. And we know from bitter experience that creating a two-tier workforce is both unfair and divisive.

Last year's pay deal was reached with hardly any involvement of the members. We can't afford to repeat that next time round.

As a first step, each area should send in to the union's central office a list of demands which would help kickstart a campaign. More information would be a good start to a campaign to defend not only the present staff but also the new starters. Then we could fight to win improved conditions as well as the return of privilege travel.

Meanwhile, NR has this year offered 3.2% across the board. RMT reps have agreed to accept this, but there was some dissent, especially from the East Midlands region.

You can get details of current terms and conditions at this web address [1].

You need to log in with your RMT membership number as your 'user name' and your surname in block capitals as your password.

The union needs to make this information much easier to access.

Lack of information is a problem for workers in many grades and employers. One Silverlink activist bought a copy of the 'red book' on e-bay after RMT head office was unable to supply her with one!

Meanwhile, Network Rail is bringing in a new grading system which will downgrade thousands of people, leaving some with zero pay rises. Managers will grade workers from A to D, but have to include some Ds even if everyone’s work is of a high standard.

This is so serious an attack that TSSA is threatening a strike ballot in protest. Let’s hope they mean it - but don’t hold your breath!