It’s time to stand up and fight for Eamonn and Arwyn

Click on the 'attachment' to see the February edition of 'RMT Up Front', the newsletter from the RMT train grades on London Underground. Full story follows:

It’s time to stand up and fight for Eamonn and Arwyn
If we tolerate these sackings, you might be next

Drivers on the Bakerloo and Northern Lines have already taken strike action to overturn the sackings of their workmates. The RMT is now looking to escalate the action across every depot in the combine. Below are the reasons why:

Fact: 99.9 of drivers on the Northern and Bakerloo Lines know that Eamonn Lynch and Arwyn Thomas have been severely dealt with.

Fact: Most duty managers on those lines know that Eamonn and Arwyn have been treated unfairly; only the senior managers are complicit in this atrocity.

Fact: Eamonn and Arwyn were not sacked by LU for breaches of procedures or codes of conduct; they were sacked because they were effective RMT representatives.

Fact: Eamonn and Arwyn have been sacked for being a thorn in management’s side; for defending drivers and ensuring that LU complied with their own procedures and the law of the land; procedures and laws that management arrogantly thought they were above.

Fact: Employment tribunal judges, in both cases, stated that LU had sacked Eamonn and Arwyn unfairly and only as a result of their trade union activities.

Fact: other drivers have committed far worse and will be picking up their train in the morning.

Fact: Eamonn and Arwyn’s disciplinary process and Eamonn’s so called Director’s appeal have been no more than kangaroo courts.
So what are we going to do about it?
Well, we have two choices: we lie down and let LU senior management walk all over us, treat us like garbage or like something nasty on the soles of their feet, or, we say no, we are not going to stand for this injustice to two of our own and we do something about it.
The RMT Bakerloo and Morden Branches have already decided that they are not going to put up with this blatant attack on innocent reps. They have already taken strike action; but now they need our support. This dispute has to be escalated to all drivers across the combine. This is an attack on every last one of us.
Eamonn and Arwyn’s sackings are wrong; it’s a simple as that. But don’t take our word for it take, ask the judges!
Eamonn and Arwyn both won Interim Relief Tribunals. This means that the judges believe that they have been victimised because of their trade union activity. Having won these tribunals, Eamonn and Arwyn are now being paid again, and if they win their full tribunals, they may get a decent payout. But that is not good enough - we need them back at work. Management may well think that a payout is a price worth paying to rid themselves of effective reps and to make the rest of us think twice before standing for a rep's post in future. But this stance from management is morally and legally wrong.
What LU are trying to do is put the frighteners on all drivers: this is what happens to you if make a fuss. Every driver in every depot knows that management are abusing procedures left right and centre. Every one of us is under the cosh. If management believe that they can get away with these illegal sackings then they have carte blanche to sack any one of us, unless we put up a fight that is. In supporting Eamonn and Arwyn we are supporting ourselves.
Yes, these are hard times for all of us and none of us can afford to lose money. That’s why the decision to take action is certainly never taken lightly. We all have bills, mortgages, kids, cars and all the other trappings but in Eamonn and Arwyn’s case we really can’t afford not to take action.
We’d all rather belong to a union that stands up for its members than a union that just cosies up to management and sits on their hands.
The bottom line is that Eamonn and Arwyn have lost their jobs for being effective reps who stand up to management on your behalf. Management didn’t like it, so they sacked them. That’s not on.
Eamonn and Arwyn deserve better, they deserve our support and they deserve their jobs back. They need every driver in every depot to stand up for them now!
Defend Eamonn and Arwyn. Stop the victimisation of drivers on LU!