McNulty Report

On Tuesday 25th October 2011, RMT organised a rally and lobby of parliament.

We protested at the proposed attacks on rail workers' jobs and pay and conditions contained within the McNulty report.

Save our Railways: Rally and Lobby of Parliament 12.30 25th October 2011 Methodist Central Hall, Westminster, London

RAIL UNIONS will join up with passenger groups and community supporters for a mass rally and lobby of Parliament next Tuesday - 25th October - as part of the national campaign to stop the Government from implementing the recommendations of the McNulty Rail Review.

RAIL UNION RMT today called on the Government to “wholly reject” the McNulty Rail Review proposals to axe station-based staff and guards on trains after the union was presented with a stark intelligence report from Southeastern Railways setting out a strategy for dealing with a Mumbai or Norway style “Active Shooter” attack on the railways with a warning that such an attack is a “strong possibility.”

From RMT General Secretary Bob Crow.

TUC PLEDGES UNANIMOUS SUPPORT FOR CAMPAIGN AGAINST MCNULTY RAIL ATTACK

I am pleased to be able to report that TUC congress has voted unanimously to throw its support behind the campaign to stop the McNulty review attack on our railways.

RMT, TSSA and ASLEF wrote to the Rail Delivery Group to ask if it was its intention to have representatives from the trade unions. The Unions were advised that this was a matter for Government. We then met the Secretary of State for Transport Philip Hammond MP who told us that union involvement was a matter for the industry.

The trade unions requested a meeting with the Rail Delivery Group and the three General Secretaries from RMT, TSSA and ASLEF met with the Chair of First Group Tim O’Toole and Chair of Network Rail David Higgins who are the Rail Delivery Group Chair and Vice Chair respectively. We put it to them that there should be an opportunity for us to put our viewpoint across and for a passengers’ representative to do the same. We were told that the Rail Delivery Group is in an embryonic stage looking at all issues and that there were a number of other bodies not represented such as the suppliers.

RAIL UNION RMT revealed today that Sir Roy McNulty was paid nearly quarter of a million pounds by the Government for writing his “rail review” report that, if implemented, would lead to savage cuts in staffing number and huge increases in fares as the private train companies are given a free run to plunder the network for even greater profits.

THE RMT AGM in Fort William has sent a message of “full and unconditional” support to the three quarters of a million workers taking action today against Government attacks on their pensions.

RMT has also pledged to co-ordinate its campaigning and action against the McNulty assault on the railways with other workers facing similar attacks on their jobs, pay and pensions over the coming months.

Speaking from the RMT AGM in Fort William, RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

Fares hikes hit lower- and middle-income families disproportionately hard

PASSENGERS ON privatised UK trains are having to fork out £4.6 billion a year more than equivalent travellers in France, where railways remain publicly owned, a study undertaken for RMT, Britain's biggest rail union, has found.