What is a National Executive Committee decision?

This article is an 'executive decision' which has been written by the RMT National Executive Committee. The National Executive is the union's governing body in between AGMs. Its decisions set out what the union will do on a particular issue.

These decisions can often be brief, and may be one of several passed over a period of time. To get a better understanding or find out more information about what the RMT is doing, speak to your rep or attend your branch or Regional Council meeting.

February 2013 Regional Council Executive Report & Motions Passed

This report of the February RMT London Transport Regional Council meeting has notes from our Executive Member Janine Booth's report, and the motions passed at the meeting. For more information please use the links to relevant articles where they are provided or speak to your local rep. You can also contact us for more details.

If you want to jump to the motions click here.

Council of executives report to london transport regional council, 31/1/13

LONDON UNDERGROUND

  • EXPECTED JOB CUTS
  • ‘WE CAN STOP JOB CUTS’ broadsheets now available – please distribute across London Underground
  • invitation to attend meeting with LUL to discuss ‘new technology and future plans’

    Read more about how the London Transport region of the RMT is fighting all job cuts in all grades here
  • time to draw up and fight for our own demands
  • LATER RUNNING?
    • announced yesterday

SERVICE CONTROL

  • reps’ meeting agreed strategy to fight planned job cuts
  • drafting proposal for management to carry out reorganisation without cutting jobs
  • signalling irregularities at Neasden depot

more here.

MACHINERY REVIEW
review of: machinery; health & safety machinery; time off agreement; uniform consultative committee; union learning agreement. A meeting has taken place to discuss process; our level 2 / tier 2 reps will meet on Monday 4/2 to discuss their views; GGC will discuss Tuesday 5/2; next meeting with management Thursday 7/2

  • issues from existing GGC decisions:
  • local representation in service control,
  • restoration of reduced fleet representation;
  • parity with ASLEF on trains; more release

in MATS; we will seek to maintain or increase the current level of release, and will aim for a more equitable and appropriate distribution of it across functions; we do not want the union learning agreement reviewed; prelim and feedback days for uniform reps
more here.

STATIONS AND REVENUE

  • some progress on revenue control issues, but still problems outstanding
  • stations organising day today
  • Wave And Pay: GGC decision to carry out tasks requested by Regional Council

Stations here.
Revenue here.

TRAINS SAFETY ISSUES

  • Bakerloo detrainment dispute
  • Jubilee line tunnel telephone wires
  • S stock train prep
  • C&H drivers doing Met line work
  • overall approach

ICSAs

  • TfL to merge ICSAs / Travel Ambassadors
  • GGC decision: we may need to escalate this dispute

OLYMPICS

  • admin
  • £100 end-of-year CSS bonus ‘suspended’ for this year

TRAINPEOPLE

  • demonstrations etc continue
  • LUL to hold ‘workshop’ preparing for CSA recruitment
  • ballot result 17-0; action to be decided following branch discussion

more here.

TUBE LINES

  • talks re P&P dispute - further action?
  • ASLEF to join the dispute?

  • Integration into LUL?
  • Tamper operators rosters – management considering our reps’ proposal

TRANSPORT FOR LONDON

  • missing 0.5% from pay award
  • market testing
  • LT Museum cuts
  • transfers from LUL in 2011
  • New Year’s Eve working arrangements
  • seeking feedback from reps/branch on these issues
  • review of the Framework (ie. machinery) - reps’ meeting Monday 4 February

more here.

CLEANERS
strike over new year – some difficulties with organisation, but picket held and multi-lingual leaflet produced for agency workers branch to integrate cleaning (and catering) members – please take up training opportunities available

  • national forum 11 February, Doncaster – all cleaners invited by email/text
  • fingerprinting: awaiting response from reps on what action to take; pursuing nationally

more here.

SODEXO

  • 50%+ membership achieved; awaiting signing of recognition agreement
  • continuing victimisation of our rep

more here.

LONDON CYCLE HIRE SCHEME

  • Community single-union deal with Serco referred to TUC Disputes Committee
  • renewed RMT organising campaign endorsed by GGC

TAXIS

  • Lewisham station
  • Heathrow bridge
  • Yellow / green badge issues
  • Newsletter to be produced, resourced by head office

more here.

OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH
GGC supporting LTRC’s campaign for right of TU rep accompaniment at meetings

NEW EXECUTIVE 2013
new members: Nick Quirk (South West);
Sean McGowan (Yorks & Lincs);
Steven Skelly (South Wales & South West)
I am on the following sub-committees this year: Southern; National; Olympics; Organisation, Education and Training; Equal Rights

EQUALITIES
more here.

RMT Women’s Conference – 8 & 9 March, in Nottingham

RMT Black & Ethnic Minority Members’ Conference – 21 & 22 March, Glasgow

RMT LGBT Conference 17 & 18 May in Blackpool (extended to two days)

Please send delegates and resolutions from your branch. Head office pays £35 per delegate expenses.

TUC Disabled Workers’ Conference, in London during May– branches asked to nominate delegates and suggest resolutions

Protest and public meeting at Parliament demanding disabled access to public transport, organised with Action for Rail, Disabled People Against Cuts and others – date to be confirmed, probably March.

PREPARING BALLOT MATRICES
issue has been discussed and an initial report drawn up - Organisation sub-committee to prepare detailed report


Motions passed at Regional Council

One motion has been marked private and can be viewed by members who have joined the site here.

Motion to Support Campaign Kazakhstan by Neasden and TFL No 1
This branch notes:

  • Kazakhstan is a police state, ruled by Nursultan Nazarbayev where opposition activists and workers’ leaders face harassment, imprisonment and violent attacks from the regime.
  • Nazarbayev and his regime’s position, is bolstered by the active support of, amongst others, the UK, US and German governments, keen to maintain lucrative trade links.
  • Since 2010, the trade union movement, in particular the new trade union federation Zhanartu (’Renaissance’ in English) has been at the forefront of opposition to the regime and the main defender and advocate for democracy and workers’ rights.
  • Campaign Kazakhstan has been set up with the aim of coordinating world-wide condemnation of the regime and the international corporations who collaborate with it. It also seeks maximum support for those who are fighting back – most prominent among them, Zhanartu leaders Ainur Kurmanov and Esenbek Ukteshbayev, prime targets of the state, Natalya Sokolova, imprisoned lawyer of the striking oil workers of west Kazakhstan and human rights activist Vadim Kuramshin.

This branch believes:

  • The Nazarbayev regime must immediately halt all attacks on opposition and workers’activists.
  • Full democratic rights - free assembly, freedom of speech, the right to protest, to strike, and to join independent trade unions – must be granted immediately.
  • That it falls to the international workers’ movement, in its best traditions, to support the movements for democracy and workers’ rights in Kazakhstan.
  • That assisting and building Campaign Kazakhstan is one crucial way that the workers movement internationally can support our brothers and sisters in Kazakhstan.

This branch resolves to:

  1. Add its name to the public list of sponsors and supporters of Campaign Kazakhstan.
  2. Send letters of protest, where indicated by the campaign, about the denial of democratic rights in Kazakhstan.
  3. Send letters of solidarity, where indicated by the campaign, with workers engaged in strikes and demonstrations in Kazakhstan.
  4. Respond to appeals for support against particular attacks on Kazakhstan opposition activists.
  5. Make a donation to Campaign Kazakhstan of£_______________
  6. Pay a weekly/monthly standing order of£_______________ to Campaign Kazakhstan.

Miners Strike Anniversary Film by LU ENGINEERING
‘That this region notes it is the anniversary of the miners’ strike and believes that it is important for working class people to have their memories of that time recorded for posterity. We further note Bro Simmons efforts to record and make a film on this subject and believe it to be a worthwhile endeavour to show our children and our future generations of that particularly hard and brutal conflict, when Thatcher tried to break our class. We need to stop the historical revisionists and make sure our side of the story is heard. We therefore ask that this region fully supports the efforts of Bro Simmons in making his film and that we ask our general grades committee to assist in all ways possible’

OPENNESS AND TRANSPARENCY by EAST HAM branch
We call for a more open and transparent process when someone is accused of wrong doing within the union. Investigations should take place within a reasonable time frame and all parties are to be kept fully informed. Outcomes should be made available to all in the name of transparency and fairness.
As a union we pride ourselves on representing all our members fairly and standing up to the companies we work for. To maintain this stance we need to be beyond reproach and deal with issues within the union in the same fair and transparent way. Our members, reps and activists need to be able to trust those at a higher level to do the right thing.
We need to be able to discuss things at all levels from branch to regional council meetings. To be told we are not allowed to discuss something is very undemocratic, leads to more speculation and does not resolve the problem.

Defend Bob Carnegie. Camden 3 and EAST HAM
Whereas:
More than 600 construction workers struck for nine weeks in August-October 2012 at the Queensland Children's Hospital construction site in pursuit of a union agreement and equal pay for all workers on the site whatever subcontractors they work for.

The chief contractor, Abigroup, eventually conceded the workers' just demands and the workers returned to work on 2nd October.

This region therefore:

  1. Calls on Abigroup to drop its legal attack on community activist Bob Carnegie in relation to his role in this dispute
  2. Believes that this legal attack is an attempt to intimidate every community activist who may in future wish to assist workers in obtaining justice.
  3. Offers its support to Bob Carnegie and to the Trade Union Defence Committee which is campaigning for Abigroup to drop the charges.

INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY by FINSBURY Park branch
‘That thisRegional Council embraces the long held view of Trade Unionists everywhere that ‘Workers of the World must unite’.

In April and May of 2012, a delegation of Trade Unionists from England, Ireland and Scotland attended an international Trade Union conference in Brazil organised by Trade Union Federation Conlutas
.
The delegation included two RMT members, Finsbury Park Branch Chair Glenroy watson and National Executive committee member Peter March.

A report was given to the RMT’s National Executive in September.

This was a very successful conference.
It included the annual May Day march through the city of San Palo where one of the RMT delegates addressed the rally.

There is now is now concrete plan in palace to hold the second conference in Paris on the 22nd to 24th March 2013.

Some of the union federations who have already signed on to this are:-
Central Sindical popular - CSP Conlutas, Brazil,
Confederación General del Trabajo, CGT Spain,
Solidaires Federation, France
Organisation Démocratique du Travail, Morocco

We call on the RMT sign up to this conference and to agree to send a delegation of no less than 10 members and circulate the information to all Branches with a view to increase our delegation.”

MEMBERS' INVOLVEMENT IN PAY AND CONDITIONS CLAIMS - STRATFORD No 1 branch
This AGM believes that the union should involve members in drawing up the contents of the pay and conditions claim submitted to their employer.
This could take the form of discussions on branch agendas, workplace visits, special meetings and other efforts, with feedback being incorporated into the claim, which should, of course, be in line with the union's policies.

If members have more input into the process, then the claim will more accurately reflect their aspirations, and members will feel more 'ownership' of, and therefore commitment to fighting for, the claim. Such a process will also be useful for recruitment, retention and organisation.

PAY CLAIMS - FLAT-RATE MINIMUM INCREASE – STRATFORD No 1 branch
We note and reaffirm union policy that pay claims should include a minimum flat rate pay increase to benefit lower-paid grades.

We resolve that the union redoubles its efforts to ensure that this element of the claim is pressed forcefully in negotiations and disputes, so that more pay settlements include this important and progressive step.

What is a National Executive Committee decision?

This article is an 'executive decision' which has been written by the RMT National Executive Committee. The National Executive is the union's governing body in between AGMs. Its decisions set out what the union will do on a particular issue.

These decisions can often be brief, and may be one of several passed over a period of time. To get a better understanding or find out more information about what the RMT is doing, speak to your rep or attend your branch or Regional Council meeting.