Metronet Strike Off

Posted in Tubeworker's blog on ,

RMT has indeed called off its strike on Metronet, but not without naffing off a fair few of its own reps and activists.

As Tubeworker cautioned here, the Strike Committee should have been at the centre of the decision-making about accepting or rejecting management's latest offer. They are the people who will have to live with the consequences of the offer and any shortfalls in it, and they have a much beadier eye for the details and failings of management's carefully-chosen words. But instead, the Department of We Know Best swung into action again.

It is not acceptable for union leaders to appreciate a Strike Committee when it is doing all the foot-work of building a dispute, only to brush it aside when the important decisions have to be made.

Next year's RMT AGM will consider Rule changes. Tubeworker reckons the union should have a rule that give Strike Committees some constitutional status, so they can not be ignored so easily.

Comments

Submitted by Tubeworker on Sat, 26/04/2008 - 09:41

Liza, the answer appears to be that the CEO of Metronet wrote to RMT on 16 April, stating "I confirm that no staff from Metronet will be transferring to Bombardier ... It is not our intention or plan to transfer any members of Metronet staff."

The hole in that is quite obvious. Surely, when the dust has settled, Metronet could announce the transfer of some staff to some company other than Bombardier - Westinghouse, say - and say "We only said that it wasn't our intention or plan on 16 April. Since then, our intentions have changed."

To keep that loophole closed, the union will have to stay strong in Metronet, so that Metronet can't feel strong enough to go ahead with transfers.

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