RMT General Grades Committee decision ...

That we welcome the decision of the Employment Tribunal to award Interim Relief to Brother Thomas, which reaffirms this union’s belief that London Underground dismissed him because of his trade union activities. Given LU’s dismissals of Eamonn Lynch – who also won his Interim Relief application – and Peter Hartshorn, we can see a concerted anti-union campaign by the employer that must be met by a concerted campaign in defence of our union and its representatives and activists.

We agree to link the files concerning Arwyn Thomas, Eamonn Lynch and Peter Hartshorn into a single file named ‘VICTIMISATION OF REPS AND ACTIVISTS – LUL’.

We welcome our Regional Council’s calling of a public meeting on Thursday 17 February in defence of our three sacked brothers and instruct the General Secretary to publicise this event throughout the trade union movement.

We further instruct the General Secretary to:

• write to London Underground urgently, insisting that the company reverse its unlawful dismissals and reinstate Eamonn, Arwyn and Peter.
• send a personal letter by post to all members employed by London Underground explaining this issue and the importance of defending reps and activists, and urging them to support this union’s campaign, including by attending the Regional Council’s public meeting.
• continue to seek media coverage of these injustices.
• arrange a meeting with representatives of our Parliamentary group and sympathetic members of the Greater London Assembly to discuss progressing this issue through political channels.
• raise this issue with the TUC both regionally and nationally and seek their support.

We will seek the views of our branches and Regional Council as to any further action to be taken on this issue. This issue to be placed back in front of us when we receive responses and/or in case of any further developments.