Public services not private profit

We note the report from our Regional Organiser and the minutes on file.

We instruct the General Secretary to ensure that this union continues to seek updated information from TfL on this process, ensuring full disclosure of information to which we are entitled, and to challenge any resulting attacks on or holding back of our members’ terms and conditions.

Any developments are to be placed in front of us.

London Transport Regional Council and branches to be advised.

TRANSPORT UNION RMT confirmed today that security and safety staff employed by STM Security Group on London Overground services will be taking strike action next week in a dispute over bullying and harassment and an attempt to impose workplace changes without agreement.

We note the correspondence from London Underground Ltd regarding TfL market testing. While this offers some reassurance that this is simply a ‘benchmarking activity’ and that no decision has been made to privatise the functions involved, we are well aware that ‘market testing’ is used to keep down pay, conditions and staffing in the public sector body as much as it is used to prepare for privatisation.

We therefore instruct the General Secretary to ensure that this issue continues to be raised with TfL and developments monitored and placed in front of us.

New Research by rail union RMT has found that French, Italian and Spanish lovers using high speed rail for a romantic city break will pay 245% less in rail fares than their UK counterparts.

Figures also show that whilst in the UK there has been a 20% increase in cost of using high speed rail (London to Paris) in the last three years, the cost of using of publicly owned European high speed rail is falling and by up to 37% in some instances.

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FIGHT AGAINST JOB CUTS

Members should already be in receipt of the broadsheet, "We Can Stop Job Cuts". This outlines how we lost over 800 jobs between March 2011 & March 2012, while passenger numbers have soared to record levels. The Broadsheet details all the arguments of our Union to maintain a fully staffed, publicly owned and integrated transport system.

Unfortunately those who run Government, in London and nationally, and their highly paid bosses at London Underground are not moved by rational arguments. A fully staffed underground system would offer the World Class service that Londoners expect.

RAIL UNION RMT warned today that a looming shortage of skilled staff, driven by a failure to invest in training and apprenticeships and the dash to sub out key work to agencies and contractors, will threaten the timetables for future rail projects including the High Speed proposals unveiled this week.

The RMT warning is backed by research by the National Skills Academy for Railway Engineering for the Office of Rail Regulation that was published just a few days ago.

20 years after legislation paving the way for the privatisation of Britain’s railways was passed by John Major’s Tory Government on the 19th January 1993, rail union RMT has set out the case for public ownership with a pledge to step up the campaign for renationalisation:

• Privatisation has cost passengers more. Since 1995 the average ticket price has increased by 22% in real terms. Britain has Europe’s highest commuter fares for both day returns and season tickets.

RMT National Policy Department briefing – What is market testing?

In the early 1990s, the Conservative government introduced a policy of market testing public services in central government, testing their efficiency by exposing them to competition from external providers. It was less relevant whether the service was actually contracted to the private sector, but rather that it was subjected to competitive challenge.

However, it is typically used to open the door to privatisation.

The Transport Committee report sets out their vision for the railway by 2020. The report endorses the 'quest' for a more efficient railway but raises concerns about safety, staffing and the protection of passenger interests.

Responding to today’s House of Commons Transport Committee Report on Rail 2020, RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

"Whilst this report reinforces once again that our railways are nothing more than a multi-billion pound rip off lining the pockets of a bunch of spivs and speculators it ducks the real issue, and that's the cast-iron case for public ownership.