Workers' Liberty

Guards on Central Trains are continuing their campaign against the imposition of a computerised rostering system called Crewplan.

The dispute began over Christmas when RMT held 3 strike days, which called for improved holiday working payments as well as protesting about Crewplan. The strikes were solid, showing management that we were serious about the fight.

You may remember last year Off The Rails reported on the setting up of ‘Solidarity’, a union for “patriotic and nationalist British workers” run by well-known BNPers. It held its first annual meeting at an undisclosed London venue on 24th February.

RMT is set to call Scottish Network Rail signallers out on strike; we should all support them. Signallers voted 70%:30%, on a 63% turnout, to strike, angry at management's delays in agreeing the new 35-hour week rosters and refusal to allow them to bank the extra hours into six extra rest days a year - and at managers’ abuses of the Cognisco system.

Welcome to life working on the railway. Goodbye social life!

Working in a station surrounded by buzzing nightlife means the life you are missing out on stares you in the face: a constant reminder that while you are working, others are having fun. Your free time rarely coincides with others', so you are less able to use your time off effectively.

Historically, cleaning was a core railway function, with many railworkers carrying out cleaning duties alongside other work, and all cleaners in a railway union. But since contracting-out and privatisation, union membership levels have dropped, and vile, predatory multinational companies have moved in, recruited vulnerable migrant workers and kept them on minimal pay, minimal holiday entitlement and the worst conditions they can get away with.

"Sometimes, you feel like you're on trial for the entire female sex. If a bloke makes a mistake, it's 'Fred's having a bad day', but if I do, it's 'Women can't do the job'."

"I really enjoy my job, and I don't complain very often. But when I had just one little grumble, a male colleague told me that if women don't like it working on the railway, we can always leave."

With John McDonnell standing to be Labour leader, trade unionists have a duty to join him in his fight. It is senseless to let an opportunity to upset the Blairites' control of the party machine go by without at least trying to wrest control from them.

RMT has disaffiliated from the Scottish Socialist Party, by request of its Scottish regional council. This follows Tommy Sheridan's split from the SSP, after he prioritised his personal reputation over the party and the socialist cause with disastrous results. If he had shrugged off the News Of The World's scandal-mongering, we might still have a united SSP making progress in Scotland, and RMT still affiliated.

The fire regulations for sub-surface stations (enacted under Section 12 of the Fire Precautions Act 1971) came from the Fennell report into the King’s Cross Fire. New rules helped to ensure the safety of our passengers, staff and emergency services.

Lots of workers do overtime to supplement low wages. But while you might feel the need to do this to get by, the system of overtime itself helps the bosses keep your wages down.

Other workers, even if their pay is OK, might feel pressured to do overtime to keep the job running and save their workmates from carrying the burden of uncovered duties. But where employers can rely on workers doing overtime, you find that vacancies take longer to be filled. Why should the company hurry up spending money on recruiting, training and kitting out new staff when they can use the existing ones? Even where overtime rates are higher than normal rates, they are cheaper for the employer than hiring a new worker.

After its extension is built, the Tube's East London Line will be integrated with the current North London Line and rebranded 'London Overground'. Which would be fine if it was going to be operated by the public sector. However, it won't be.

On 2nd February, two young men died and another was injured when their car collided with a train at an open level crossing at Delny. A couple of weeks later saw the third anniversary of the death of four track workers at Tebay - for which two sub-contractors have been jailed.

As we write, RMT's ballot for strike action over Tube pay has come back with a huge mandate for action. On a turnout of about 50%, 2,271 (76%) voted to strike, 705 (24%) against.

But the leadership may be preparing to back down rather than fight, hinting that they now see the only problem with LUL’s offer as "strings". But the offer itself is crap - a 3-year deal with rises each year only a fraction above inflation.