Tubeworker is well in favour of elections for union reps taking place in the workplace, so we are pleased to see that two RMT branches have decided to introduce this system.

Morden & Oval branch held workplace-ballot elections last week, and around 160 of 300 eligible members cast a vote. That's probably three times the number they have ever seen at a branch AGM, so that's the first advantage of this electoral method: much higher turnout and participation.

It also gives the union a higher profile in the place where it really counts: the workplace. And it enables members who can not attend the branch meeting - perhaps because they are working, or have family responsibilities, or don't want to go into a pub - to vote.

It makes sense to Tubeworker that posts should be elected in the place where they carry out their role. So yes, elect branch officers at the branch meeting - but elect workplace reps at the workplace. It is the workers in that particular workplace who know the issues and the candidates best - and who have to live with the result!

Finally, consider this. Imagine Gordon Brwon announcing tomorrow that they were changing the way that General Election worked. Instead of having a polling station a couple of streets from your home, you would have to go to a boozer somewhere in the constituency at 4 o'clock in the afternoon and if you couldn't make it: no vote. Would you say "Cor, that's a much more democratic way to do things"? Or would you be outraged at this attack on participatory democracy? Tubeworker suggests the latter.

Some very good trade unionists oppose elections by workplace ballot, for genuine reasons. But for all the reasons outlined above, Tubeworker urges them to re-think.