Workers' Liberty

Anti-social hours, poor safety, low pay, job cuts, victimisation, attacks on condtions ... Over and again, we have to fight, and when the talking fails, we have to strike.

Our strongest weapon is our power to withdraw our labour. The media often make out that ultra-militant union leaders force unwilling members to strike. But we know that often, the opposite is true. We have to put pressure on our leaders to organise action.

• Steve Hedley: back at work

• ASLEF wins on safety
• The Tesco Tunnel
• Network Rail goes private?

Back to Work

Steve Hedley is back working for Westinghouse having won his fight against victimisation (reported last October in Off The Rails).

The Rail Union Learning project brings together representatives from RMT, ASLEF, TSSA and AMICUS. Unlike other union positions, the Learner Rep represents members from all the unions involved.

The Learner Rep has been part of the trade union movement for a few years now, but we get very little publicity outside of our own and TUC publications.

Imagine the scenario: you are at work and a passenger assaults you after you have tried to stop them abusing another passenger. On leaving the station, the assailant verbally informs booking office staff that he has been assaulted, then disappears never to be seen or heard from again. Some hours later you finish your duty and get back to your station.

Following the seven deaths at Ufton Nervet, the last issue of OTR looked in depth at the issue of level crossing safety.

Sad to say, we have to report that on 30th June, a teenager was killed, and his five friends injured, when a train dragged their car 100m along the track at Rawcliffe Bridge, near Goole.

The bomb attacks on Thursday 7th July were despicable. 55 people died, and many more were injured.

This was an attack on us at work, and on our passengers going about their daily lives. The bombers killed innocent civilians, members of London's diverse population.

Across the country, cleaners work in awful conditions. They need the union and the union needs them. On the Tube, RMT has been unionising cleaners. Here, one activist outlines what they have done.

Staff on Wessex Trains are preparing to fight against compulsory redundancies.

About three years ago, the company reclassified some supervisory and clerical grades as 'managers' - and then had the cheek to say that RMT could no longer represent them as they had a single-union deal for managers with TSSA!

This autumn, the Pension Commission will make its recommendations. It was set up to find an extra £50b a year to keep up the current living standard for pensioners.

Between now and then, the trickle of news stories about the pensions crisis will become a torrent, with the line that we are not saving enough for our extended old age. Constant repetition of this will prepare us for the bad news that is sure to come out of the report.

Dear Off The Rails

It was great to see RMT members and supporters out on the streets during the Rail Against Privatisation (RAP) mobile demonstrations. Even better to hear Bob Crow at a rally following one such event in Nottingham calling for the formation of a workers' party.

Back Pedalling

Funny, isn't it? There hasn't been a major rail crash for a while, so the SRA is back-pedalling on safety improvements.

The Cullen report into the Paddington and Southall crashes said that the European Rail Traffic Management System should come in by 2010. It's a step up from TPWS and can stop trains passing a red on 100mph lines, but the SRA has delayed it until the 2020s.

Ey up, Prescott here again. You know, that class traitor bloke you don’t see much of on telly any more.

The fantastic private railway goes from strength to strength. More than a billion passenger journeys last year!

There’s only one way to celebrate this triumph - shut down lines and stations, and charge the passengers more! Bloody brilliant.

I especially like the TOCs’ idea of a ‘congestion charge’ to squeeze even more out of those daft enough to use trains rather than drive Jags like me. Must have got the idea from my very good friend Ken.

Such thrusting entrepreneurial spirit means that rail directors’ whopping bonuses are fully justified. And if you whingeing workers keep on tightening your belts, then the big cheeses can keep on raking it in.

Take those top blokes at Network Rail. Nearly a million quid between them. Result! Some moaners seem to resent it, and go on about how one in six trains run late, as if this could possibly be the directors’ fault. Lazy train drivers, if you ask me.

You’re paid to drive the trains, while the directors are paid (much more) to take responsibility. Except for when things go wrong, of course, when they are paid to avoid responsibility. And a very good job they do of it. Much like politicians, really.

What a life. And a well-funded retirement to look forward to as well. Don’t complain, you jealous gits - else I’ll chin yer.