Rail unions

Rail, Maritime and Tranposrt Union (RMT); Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF); Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA)

Rail TOCs: a rotten deal

The current deal on the table in RMT members’ fight with the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) is called the Dispute Resolution Process (DRP). It is a two-year deal, covering 2022-3 (“Year One”, last year), and 2023-4 (“Year Two”, starting now). The string attached to the 5% pay settlement for Year One is that we have to enter the Year Two process for restructuring job roles and terms and conditions. The employers want to consolidate current job roles into a single “multi-skilled” grade on stations. They also want to overhaul policies on attendance, sick pay, rostering parameters and more...

Diary of a railworker: a first test of resolve

On the Elizabeth Line in London, barely a day goes by without delays. With the new timetable due in a few weeks, promising up to 24 trains per hour in the central section, it remains to be seen if the system can cope. Station staff will continue to take the flak and mitigate as much as possible. Pay talks for 2023/24 on the Elizabeth Line begin in earnest in the first week of April, despite the previous settlement expiring on 1 April. Management has offered 5% pay rise, 3% now plus 2% in October, but with terms-and-conditions changes, such as seven-day working. The union reps have rebuffed...

Rail dispute: yes, more strikes are needed!

Possibly in response to disquiet on the RMT members’ Facebook group about the lack of union comms on the current talks with the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), and a feeling there that we’ve yet again been suckered into calling off strike action for no reason, on Thursday 6 April the union sent an email to members and issued a press release. The email laments the fact that the RDG’s Dispute Resolution Process document has failed to materialise, making it impossible for the union to scrutinise as part of the offer. It also laments the fact that RDG has to “seek authorisation on every offer it...

Pay: still time to turn the tide

Despite the votes to accept poor offers on Network Rail and by RCN in NHS Scotland, and despite the suspension of strikes on Train Operating Companies, there is still potential to remobilise and turn the tide. But workers need independent rank-and-file organisation to develop alternative strategies in disputes. RCN (Royal College of Nursing) in Scotland has announced that among its members in Scotland. 53.3% voted to accept the offer, 46.6% voted to reject, on a turnout of just over 50%. The offer is a 6.5% rise in 2023-4 (or for some, fractionally more) for all staff up to and inclusive of...

Diary of a tubeworker: paying more for less

Every time a driver is unavailable to pick up a train, for whatever reason, there are a number of knock-on effects. How these are managed can have a big impact on your mood and what kind of service passengers get. You might be on a train for up to four hours and fifteen minutes. As soon as someone isn’t available that might mean a train cancellation, and that means the current driver needs to get the train to a depot, siding, or an alternative place it can be picked up and “reformed” into a train that was previously cancelled. That headache largely sits with the Line Controllers. On weekends...

It's urgent to speed up and widen strikes

March 15 will see teachers, civil servants, Tube workers, and junior doctors, and possibly others, strike together. Some of those workers, including teachers and junior doctors, will also strike on 16 March, when they will be joined by workers on the national rail. 15 March is Budget day. It is an opportunity to press not only the demands of individual disputes, but a broader package of pro-working-class policies: rebuild the NHS, scrap anti-strike laws, increase benefits... Lively, well-supported picket lines and a strong presence in central London, with local strike rallies elsewhere, could...

After TSSA, all unions need checking

An Inquiry has found a culture of sexism, harassment and bullying in the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA). Helena Kennedy KC reported: “It gave me no pleasure to uncover a series of appalling incidents, alongside leadership and management failings in the TSSA. These incidents included inappropriate and sexual touching, sexual assault, coercive and manipulative behaviour, violent and disrespectful language, humiliation and denigration of members of staff, reps and members of the Executive Committee.” Included in the recommendation is that none of the current senior staff she calls...

The keys? You'll have to share

In January a person was stabbed at Woolwich station on the Elizabeth Line. Fortunately the victim only sustained minor injuries and the perpetrator was later caught by police. As for staff who witnessed the scene, they were given special leave to process an understandably traumatic experience. The situation has got staff even more concerned about our own safety. In case of an attack, we have a designated “place of safety”, usually the lockable Assistance pods you see by gatelines. Yet many staff do not have the requisite keys to access them. We have been told for months that more keys are...

Rail and Tube disputes at turning point

On Wednesday 18 January, the front page of the Metro newspaper previewed the mass coordinated strike planned for 1 February with the headline "one out, all out". The headline was accompanied by a picture of RMT general secretary Mick Lynch. The picture was, in some ways, an odd choice: only a tiny handful of RMT members (drivers in mainline Train Operating Companies, TOCs, where workers are overwhelmingly organised by another union, Aslef) participated in the 1 February strike. The union's National Executive Committee (NEC) decided to keep the vast bulk of members currently involved in...

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