Well it's New Year's Eve and the day of the strike.Up at 06.30 and have arranged to meet a RMT industrial Rep from another group and head down for the leafleting campaign starting at Functional Council Offices.
So 5 of us are travelling down and it's whilst we are at Kings Cross we receive a garbled message from a Functional Rep which to be honest was quite unintelligble.We continue onto Holborn and the Functional Council Offices and discover there is no-one there!!
After several phone calls and texts(severely diminishing our phone credit)we established that there had been a break down in communication and that the aforementioned leafleting had actually taken place on Thursday.
So we seem to be establishing a theme here(can you guess what it is?),yep that's right poor communication yet again!
It's amazing how many phones of more prominent members of the RMT seemed to be switched off.Now I had been prepared to picket today but I find myself without any literature to distribute,no official picket armbands,nobody to picket with!!What is a rep to do?It was suggested to me that I could make my own picket armbands etc but sadly I must have missed the edition of Blue Peter which that was demonstrated on!I did receive a phone call from a Functional Rep(I had left a message yesterday) and I enquired about picketing.The answer I got did surprise me,it was the joint opinion of this Functional Rep and a highly prominent member of the RMT hierachy that they thought it would be unwise to picket on New Year's Eve for personal safety reasons.I think they were concerned about being assaulted by drunks etc.
Mmmmmm,why is a strike called on New Year's Eve then? Picketing is a fundamental element of industrial action and if you can't picket, it does reduce the effectiveness of the action taken.
The organisation of this strike appears to be a farce,yet again it's the Reps on the ground left floundering and scrapping for information.We are in danger of becoming a joke,the RMT is large and powerful union but it is not going to fill its membership with confidence if doesn't get its act together and work as an effective unit.
Anyway enough negativity from me,I'm still proud to be in the RMT(just!) so I would like to make some suggestions.First thing is to talk to the rank and file members and the Level/Tier 1 Reps,they know what the mood on the ground is,secondly every Branch/Reps should have a Strike pack,in this pack would be armbands,useful literature,tips on running a successful picket line,useful contact numbers.This would mean Reps can hit the ground running and be able to organise more effectively at a local level.
In fact it would be great especially for newer reps to be trained by the Union in how to organise its members in dispute situations.There is a vast wealth of knowledge in the Union and would be invaluable if this was imparted more efficiently.
So as we enter the final hours of 2005 my suggestion to the RMT Hierachy is you must do better in 2006,we expect much more for our monthly contribution than just a diary.If you want to cut through the apathy that pervades through some members of staff then do something to inspire them and fill them with renewed confidence and vigour.
Unity is Strength,simple and true.