Renationalisation must mean insourcing!

Image source: RMT website.

We're inching towards a limited form of rail renationalisation under the Labour government's Great British Railways scheme. We have to fight to push it further.

Outsourced workers won't feel the benefits of renationalisation unless their work is brought in house. RMT is currently highlighting the struggle of outsourced workers at Northern, including station staff, cleaners, and security guards, employed by Carlisle, ISS, and Amulet.

The issues they face are faced by thousands of other outsourced workers across the sector.

RMT's 2025 AGM passed a comprehensive resolution committing the union to an assertive campaign to shape the renationalisation process, demanding it go further, faster. It's good to see the campaigning work being done on the issue of outsourcing. The rest of the resolution needs to be enacted, too. The union can't transform the situation single-handedly, but the more actively and assertively we raise our demands, combining industrial action with public-facing political campaigning, the more pressure we can put on the government.

RMT AGM resolution: Demand Labour goes further

This AGM welcomes Labour's plan to bring the rail industry under the management of one public body.

However, this AGM believes that:

1) the Passenger Railway Services (Public Ownership) Act 2024 is inadequate, as it will still leave large sections of the rail industry in the hands of private companies.
2) the government was wrong to scrap the Restoring Your Railway fund, which supports the reopening of lines and stations.

This AGM further believes that a massive expansion of public transport is necessary to transition to a zero-carbon economy and ensure the future habitability of the planet.

This AGM demands that Labour goes much further, and:

1) fully returns the rail industry, including freight, rolling stock, and open access companies, to public ownership.
2) insources all outsourced work, e.g., cleaning.
3) provides adequate funding to ensure the safe operation of the network, including reversing cuts to infrastructure maintenance and renewals.
4) ensures sustainable central government funding for publicly owned metropolitan transport providers, e.g., Transport for London.
5) funds expansion of rail capacity and services available to passengers, including reversing the decision to axe the Restoring Your Railway fund and increasing its funding.
6) reverses cuts to jobs, including those lost under Network Rail's Modernising Maintenance proposals.
7) commits to no further job losses in the rail industry.
8) facilitates a major shift in freight transportation from road to rail.
9) accelerates electrification programmes.
10) fully resources the work necessary to make the railway network accessible to disabled people.

This AGM resolves to organise campaigning, mobilising RMT members via branches and Regional Councils, to pursue these demands. This campaigning will include local campaigns, in coordination with the wider labour movement and community groups, around specific demands, e.g., the (re-)opening of particular railway lines and services.