TRANSPORT UNION RMT will put the issue of a referendum on British membership of the EU, alongside a call for British withdrawal, on the agenda at the TUC Congress which gets underway in Brighton on Sunday (9th September).
You can download the flyer below - please print and distribute amongst comrades
The RMT's London Transport Regional council has organised a meeting for members to discuss the changes to Employment tribunals - one of many attacks from the Tories on workers. The meeting will also discuss how these and further attacks could be defended against.
The meeting will cover what every RMT rep, activist and worker needs to know and what can be done in the face of further Tory attacks designed to make it even harder to fight for justice in the workplace.
The meeting takes place at The Exmouth Arms on Tuesday 25th of September at 5pm.
In her final act of betrayal of the UK rail industry before heading to Northern Ireland, rail minister Theresa Villiers confirmed that the Thameslink fleet contract, now delayed for over 15 months, has been booted into the long grass again with only another vague statement that it may be signed off in the autumn.
The latest blow to British train building came as it emerged that Siemens, the preferred Thameslink bidder over Bombardier in Derby, have had to pay the Greek Government £262 million in settlement of bribery allegation around the Athens Olympics in 2004.
This decision confirmed the allocation of members and workplaces to the 17 branches in RMT’s London Transport region, as listed here.
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We note the report from our Regional Organiser regarding spheres of influence of branches within London Transport region. We endorse the report and instruct the General Secretary to ensure its implementation.
We are seriously concerned that this [change to shifts] ...could lead to members working more days or longer hours. - Bob Crow
From General Secretary Bob CrowFrom General Secretary Bob Crow
It has been brought to our attention that London Underground are in breach of the spirit of our Olympic Agreement in terms of the rostering arrangements within the APD Stations Group Power and Electrical Department.
Having consulted with the local branch and representatives, the General Grades Committee has decided to call our members who work as Electricians, Senior Technicians, Team Leaders and Work Controllers within the APD Stations Group Power and Electrical Department to take the following industrial action short of a strike.
Not to work any overtime from 06.00 hours on Friday 7th September 2012 until 23.59 hours on Sunday 9th September 2012
We note the reply from Initial, that this is a group wide initiative from Initial Facilities to implement the Kronos Time and Attendance System into all contracts by end of 2012, with both biometric and telephone systems in operation. We also note the views of our representatives, who strongly oppose this move, rightly seeing it as an attack on their civil liberties and a weapon for management to use to victimise our members.
We therefore instruct the General Secretary to:
1. Urgently contact Initial management demanding a meeting to discuss our objections.
It appears that LUL have now decided that they will choose who can and can not be a local rep. Management have refused to recognise Industrial Relations rep Jason Moriarty. An email was sent to Management at Stratford from Employee relations stating "I am of the view that he can not be rep again" and "There is no recognition rights for RMT at north Greenwich."
This is of course nonsense as there has been an RMT IR rep at North Greenwich since it opened and the collective bargaining agreement is very clear about who can be a rep.
An important message from RMT to London Underground passengers.
During the Olympics London Underground has been counting volunteers among the number of safety-trained staff needed legally to keep Tube stations open, putting everyone concerned at risk. See overleaf to see how YOU can help us to stop this abuse.
During the Olympics, London Underground has been using volunteers to help out with the additional crowds using the Tube.
THE SAFE evacuation of the Northern Rail train derailed near St Bees in Cumbria yesterday underlines the importance of safety-trained train and infrastructure crew who are under threat thanks to “wrong-headed” government policy, Britain’s biggest rail union said today.
As the media reported praise for the train crew’s calm and orderly evacuation of around 100 passengers, RMT condemned the government’s plan to abolish guards under the notorious McNulty report, which aims to sack up to 20,000 rail staff to protect private operators’ profits.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: