Rail unions

Rail, Maritime and Tranposrt Union (RMT); Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF); Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA)

The RMT and politics

Text being submitted in RMT branches on the RMT and politics. We note the historic decision of the 2003 RMT AGM to open its political fund to candidates and organisations outside of the Labour Party. While applauding this decision on its merits, we believe that the union needs to take the issue further and establish principles as to who we should and should not back. A century ago, the pioneers of our union took the historic decision that trade unions should form our own political party, so that working people could be directly represented in Parliament, rather than relying on other parties...

Tubeworker 27 August 2003

Preparing to fight over pay and conditions Tubeworker's front page reflects the anger and frustration amongst Underground workers over low pay and inequalities in working hours, discount travel and pensions. Tubeworker also assesses why Mick Rix lost the ASLEF General Secretary election to right-winger Shaun Brady. Download the bulletin in pdf format .

Tubeworker 26 July 2003

RMT Conference slams New Labour Tubeworker reports on the recent RMT Annual General Meeting, which took important decisions over the future of the union's political involvement. Workplace reports include the fall-out from the final report into the Chancery Lane crash. Download the bulletin in pdf format .

Industrial News: ROUND-UP

Post: Step up the fight on London pay ASLEF: Rix didn't organise Devon Stagecoach dispute Debate on RMT conference: Not fair to blame Crow Debate on RMT conference: RMT policy is not duplicitous Post: Step up the fight on London pay By a London postal worker At a meeting of London reps at the beginning of August, many expressed impatience and anger over the London Weighting (LW) campaign. There was talk of using unofficial action to advance the campaign, but the almost unanimous decision of the meeting was to seek support from the Postal Executive, which has now resulted in the joint ballot...

RMT: More political freedom: now use it wisely

By a conference delegate The 2003 RMT conference made several rule changes governing the use of the political fund (see back page for details). These rule changes will put the RMT into direct conflict with the constitution of the Labour Party. An affiliate of the party cannot support a party or person that stands against Labour in elections. There is a chance that the Labour leadership will try to expel us from the party that we helped to set up 103 years ago. In the event of that happening we should campaign among the rest of the TUC and Labour Party for support. A massive campaign exposing...

RMT vote on political funds

Organise the rank and file By Colin Foster The broadside condemnation of Blair's New Labour government by the RMT railworkers' union conference this week (29 June-4 July) is a welcome jolt to the labour movement. So is the probable decision, soon, by the RMT's Scottish region to affiliate to the Scottish Socialist Party. But where we go from here depends on what rank-and-file activists and socialists, in the RMT and other unions, make of it. RMT activists have been jolted free from their previous automatic, laid-down-by-rule tie to backing New Labour in elections. They should now take an...

Police attack Underground workers

By Janine Booth, RMT Stations & Revenue Grades Committee London Underground workers have been shocked by several incidents in which Police officers have abused, threatened, assaulted or persecuted our colleagues. Last month, Station Supervisor and RMT representative Alfie Theodore was on duty in the Station Control Room at Piccadilly Circus. A drunk, off-duty copper burst in and racially abused him. When the Supervisor asked him to leave, the officer launched a vicious physical assault on him, leaving him injured and having to take several weeks off work. This follows a year-long nightmare for...

Rail union moves towards break with Labour

According to the Financial Times of 1 July 2003: The descendant of one of the Labour Party's founding unions could see itself branded an outcast under the party's rules after it voted on Tuesday to seek "closer links" with a range of other parties, including the Scottish Socialist Party, Plaid Cymru and the Greens. Bob Crow, general secretary of the 65,000-strong Rail Maritime and Transport union, went further still by exhorting his union's Scottish branches to affiliate to the far-left SSP. Delegates at the union's annual conference in Glasgow rounded on New Labour over its stewardship of...

Renationalise the network!

Tubeworker of 2 July 2003 reports on train operating company Connex losing its franchise, and Network Rail's planned job cuts, and draws the conclusion: renationalise the whole network, under democratic workers' and community control. The bulletin also reports on Glenroy Watson's reinstatement to driving duties, and new harder-line management tactics on the Tube. Download here: front and back pages.

AWL at RMT conference

The rail union RMT is holding its conference in Glasgow from Sunday 29 June to Friday 3 July. The major debate is around the union's political fund, with the leadership, round Bob Crow, pushing for the RMT to support Plaid Cymru (the Welsh nationalist party) and the Greens as well as Scottish Socialist Party and Labour candidates. AWL members will be opposing this push. Download the AWL bulletin for RMT conference (as pdf) here .

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