Article for Labour Briefing on London Transport workers' struggles

I have written this short article for Labour Briefing:

On 6 February, despite strong opposition from trade unions and passengers, London Underground completed its cut of 800 jobs from its stations. It slashed ticket office opening hours and removed staff from around the stations, leaving safety and security compromised and passengers without the help they need. Private-sector-run upgrades are seeing repeated failures, and maintenance regimes are being slashed.

RMT and TSSA fought the job cuts, taking four separate days’ strike action between September and November. The two unions are now engaged in a review of the job cuts with LU management which may yet restore some of the cut jobs.

During the dispute, LU took hostages, sacking three RMT representatives in an attempt to weaken the union. LU has since reinstated stations rep Peter Hartshorn on appeal, as his Piccadilly line workmates prepared for strike action. But train driver RMT reps Eamonn Lynch and Arwyn Thomas remain sacked. Both have won ’interim relief’, as Employment Tribunal judges ruled that LU had sacked them unfairly due to their trade union activities. It is very rare for sacked union reps to win interim relief; the fact that Eamonn and Arwyn did so shows beyond doubt that their sackings were an anti-union act.

Eamonn’s and Arwyn’s workmates on the Bakerloo and Northern lines have taken two days’ strike action to demand their reinstatement. RMT is now preparing to escalate the dispute by balloting all our driver members for strikes. Rank-and-file reps and members understand that the sackings are not merely injustices against two members, but an attack on the union and on trade unionism in general.

Workers on the Docklands Light Railway voted in January by a big majority for strike action over several issues, including cuts in pension rights, imposed restructuring, and the sacking of two workmates. But the employer, Serco Docklands, ran to the High Court, which duly obliged them with an injunction against the strike. RMT had not broken any existing anti-union law, so the judge invented a new one and declared the union to have broken that!

The injunction extends Britain’s already highly-repressive anti-union legislation, by declaring that a union must give a far more detailed explanation of how it compiled the information it has to provide to the employer in its notices of ballots and industrial action. So RMT has appealed against the injunction; as I write, the appeal has been heard, but judgment may not be given until March.

Once again, democratic, effective trade union action has been thwarted by anti-democratic laws and judges, bent on serving the employers. It is telling indeed that when a court rules a strike unlawful on a flimsy pretext, the union has to obey and call off the strike; but when a court rules a sacking unlawful on good grounds, the employer does not have to obey and reinstate the sacked worker! David Cameron claims that Britain’s employment law is weighed too heavily in favour of the employer, but these latest cases prove the opposite.

It is easy enough to denounce anti-union laws and judges; it is now high time for a renewed campaign to defeat them. Our unions must mobilise members to fight for trade union rights, and those who claim to represent the labour movement in politics must make a stand against the anti-union laws, rather than staying away when they have a chance to do so, as when John McDonnell’s Lawful Industrial Action (Minor Errors) Bill was debated in Parliament.

Follow RMT in the London Transport region:
Website: www.rmtlondoncalling.org.uk
Twitter: @RMTLondon

By Janine Booth, London Transport region representative, RMT Council of Executives

Well done - Janine Booth elected onto RMT's national Council of Executives.

Congrats to Janine , from Workers Liberty :


AWL member Janine Booth has become the first ever woman to be elected to the London Transport seat on the RMT's national Council of Executives.
In a landslide victory, Janine received more than double the amount of votes won by her opponents. The key focus of her campaign was increasing rank-and-file control in the union and developing assertive industrial strategies designed to win. With the jobs dispute on London Underground now at a key juncture, the presence of a rank-and-file socialist like Janine on the union's national leadership could make a real difference.

Oh and don't forget to keep blogging here on your experiences .

Striking

Today, I am striking again alongside thousands of my London Underground workmates - our third monthly one-day strike.

The reason? London Underground is planning to cut hundreds and hundreds of jobs, which will seriously reduce safety and services for passengers. I and my workmates do not share the company's view that the Tube can manage with up to 800 fewer staff on its stations, and 800 fewer 'support services' staff, many of whom are not paper-shufflers but play essential roles in maintenance, safety and other areas.

The threat to the Underground's standards is so severe that the TSSA trade union, known for its extreme reluctance to take industrial action, is out on strike alongside my union, RMT. Members of both unions spent months and months campaigning, lobbying and negotiating before resorting to strike action.

To read more about the issues, and reports on our campaign, please click on one of these two links:

• RMT Platform - Staff Our Stations
  
• RMT London Calling - Stop job cuts

Public support for Tube strike

LBC is polling on its website, asking people "Whose side are you on in the Tube dispute?", here:
The current score is: Unions - 75.55%
Transport for London - 24.45%

London TravelWatch (the official watchdog for transport users) is polling visitors to its website. If you vote in the poll on ticket office opening hours on the front page (in the left hand column), you are then invted to vote on several more: click here.
At the moment:
- around 70% of respondents want ticket offices open for the whole time that the station is open (ie. for longer than they are open now!)
- over 80% of respondents believe that public transport is at risk because of funding cuts
- around a quarter have had problems topping up their Oyster card

London radio station phone-ins: The Tube strikes will no doubt be a hot topic of conversation on London's radio stations. There is a list of phone and text numbers for radio stations here. You, your friends and family may like to express their views!

A majority of GLA members (Labour + LibDems + Greens = 13 out of 25) oppose the Tube job cuts. When they proposed a resolution several weeks ago, the Tories walked out of the meeting to make it inquorate. We look forward to the resolution being resubmitted and the Tories staying in the room and being defeated!

Several disability organisations support our fight against staffing cuts, as the people they represent need staff to help them around the Tube. One organisation, Transport for All, had a very supportive letter published in the Evening Standard, which you can see here.

A message to Tube passengers from Tube staff

WHY WE ARE STRIKING: TO DEFEND SERVICES, SAFETY AND JOBS

London Underground plans to:
•get rid of around 800 station staff posts
•reduce ticket office opening times by around 7,500 hours
•carry out essential maintenance checks on trains every four weeks instead of every two weeks
•cut the number of train drivers’ posts

Tube trade unions RMT and TSSA have tried for months to persuade London Underground to scrap these unnecessary and dangerous cuts. We have spent hours in talks, have lobbied politicians, and have won lots of support from passengers. But London Underground and the Mayor have not listened.

London Underground has left members of the two unions with no choice but to hold strikes and other industrial action. We are prepared to lose money by striking because we are not prepared to see London’s workers and passengers put at risk, left without help, or have vital services withdrawn. We are professional railway staff and we want to be able to do our jobs safely and properly.

We believe that people who live in, visit and work in London need:
•a safe, secure London Underground
•open ticket offices
•more Tube staff, not fewer
•job opportunities for unemployed people and school-leavers

We understand that strikes can cause disruption and distress. We want the staff cuts withdrawn so that we do not have to carry on striking. Please support our campaign.

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Fewer station staff means:
•a less safe London Underground
•less information and help during delays and disruptions
•it will be harder to evacuate stations quickly and safely in the event of an emergency eg. fire, crash, bombing
•less help for disabled, elderly and other vulnerable passengers
•less chance of you getting the help you need with directions, information, lost property, accidents or other issues
•less deterrent to assault, vandalism and other harmful behaviour
•you will feel less secure travelling around London Underground

Shorter ticket office opening hours means you will not be able to get a ticket seller’s help when:
•you have a problem with your ticket or Oyster
•the ticket machines are not working (which will happen more often with fewer staff to service them)
•you need to buy a ticket that is not available elsewhere
•you believe that the ticketing system has treated you unfairly
•your ticket or Oyster does not work
•you want the ‘personal touch’ in dealing with your issue

Less frequent train maintenance and fewer drivers means:
•trains potentially going into passenger service with defective brakes and other parts
•serious risk of accidents, injuries and even deaths
•trains more likely to be cancelled and therefore more delays to your journey

Support our campaign against staffing cuts:
•Visit our website: www.rmtplatform.org.uk/sos
•Send us an email: supportus@rmtlondoncalling.org.uk
•Contact your member of the Greater London Assembly. Find out their names and contact details at www.london.gov.uk/who-runs-london/the-london-assembly/members. Write to them at City Hall, The Queen’s Walk, London SE1 2AA.
•Tell London Underground and TfL your views by writing to Customer Service Centre, London Underground, 55 Broadway, London SW1H 0BD, or online at www.tfl.gov.uk/helpandcontact
•Email Mayor Boris Johnson: mayor@london.gov.uk

Vote For Me! (if you're in the RMT)

I'm standing for the RMT Executive, and here is my manifesto ...


JANINE BOOTH: MANIFESTO FOR ELECTION TO LONDON TRANSPORT REPRESENTATIVE, RMT COUNCIL OF EXECUTIVES

I joined London Underground in 1997, and signed up to the RMT straightaway. I now work as a Station Supervisor, and represent station staff in all locations on LU's Stations & Revenue Council, as well as getting involved with and supporting other grades wherever I can. I am the union's Regional Council Secretary, and have been a branch secretary and branch chair in the past.

I am 100% committed to our union, and work tirelessly to build the union and fight for the interests of London Transport workers. Many reps have asked me to stand as they feel that I will stand up for rank-and-file members and improve the union we all believe in.


WHAT WE FACE

London Transport workers - and the whole working class - face an unprecedented onslaught from the new Con-Dem coalition government. The government and our employers are already attacking our jobs and trying to keep our pay down. Attacks on our pensions are not far behind, and workers are suffering a discipline clampdown and daily indignities from employers with no respect for our rights. The GLA Tories want to introduce driverless Tube trains, and our employers will see the Olympics as an opportunity to try out new forms of casualised working that they can use in the future.

In the face of this, we need a more effective trade union: one that is relevant and good to get involved with, and through which workers can defend our jobs and conditions and win a better life at work. We can not carry on ticking over or doing things in a particular way just because we have always done them that way. The RMT needs to be progressive and I believe I can help with this.

It would be better if we had one union for all workers in our industry, but until we get that, we need to build unity in action and to make RMT as big and effective as possible.


MORE DEMOCRACY, LESS BUREAUCRACY

Our union needs to become more democratic, with rank-and-file members having more say. I know that many members and activists find it very frustrating when we work hard for union campaigns and disputes only for decisions to be taken above our heads.

I would aim to be an Executive member who represents rank-and-file views to the leadership, rather than representing the leadership's views to the rank-and-file! I will be told what to do by you, not by national leaders.

I will only propose to the Executive that a strike is put on, or called off, or a new policy agreed with an employer, following discussion and agreement by reps, branches and members. And if we don't agree amongst each other, we'll have a vote.

The union should make decisions about disputes that the members involved in that dispute want it to. The Executive member is crucial to making this happen. I have always stood up for this principle; last year even pursuing to the union's AGM an appeal to say that the Executive should consider listening to a members' meeting before setting strike dates!

Democracy also means accountability. I have always tried to make myself as accountable as possible in my union roles, for example by giving regular reports and visiting branch meetings when I can.

Throughout my involvement in the union, I have always sought to make it less bureaucratic, by circulating information, providing more transparency, reducing jargon, pushing for policy decisions to be implemented rather than ignored, and promoting changes to rules that extend democracy. I would now like to pursue this at the level of the union's national executive.


AN ALL GRADES UNION

RMT represents workers in many grades and companies under the TfL 'umbrella'.

As Regional Council Secretary, I have worked closely with reps, branches and members in all these grades and companies, and have continually championed those grades which feel sidelined or ignored. No grade of workers should feel like second-class citizens in the RMT.

Our different grades need action:
- LU station staff fighting job cuts
- cleaners who have won the London Living Wage and now want to go on to win decent holidays, sick pay, travel facilities and freedom from harrassment, bullying and denial of immigration rights
- engineering and fleet workers, coming back into the public sector after the PPP fiasco, and determined to ensure that they are not made to pay the price of the private sector's profiteering
- LU drivers opposing dangerous changes to their working procedures and promoting all-grades trade unionism in a grade divided into two unions
- staff in TfL, who are divided into even more unions, and who need RMT to become bigger, stronger and more effective
- LU service control, battling the effects of a restructuring process that has divided workers
- admin grades, where RMT is not as strong as it could be
- other groups of members, from DLR to Taxi drivers, Alstom to CBS Outdoor, security guards to catering staff, who need to be brought in from the periphery into the centre of our union.

Most of all, we need all these grades organising together, taking up each grade's particular concern but always promoting common demands, seeking to 'level-up' to the best pay and conditions, and acting in a united way. I have actively supported all the grades mentioned above, for example by publicising their campaigns and issues around the rest of the Region, providing training and support to reps, getting grades committees set up, and taking part in protests and picket lines.

(RMT has now decided not to organise or seek recognition for London bus drivers. But having accepted them into membership for several years before making this decision, it needs to work out a way of implementing its policy that addresses their concerns.)


COMMUNICATION AND INFORMATION

Knowledge is power! The more workers know about our rights, the better equipped we are to assert them. The more we know about our own and others' pay and conditions, the more we can see inequalities and demand improvements. And the more we know about how our union works and what it is doing, the more ordinary members can put forward our own views about what the union should do.

Both as a station staff rep and Regional Council Secretary, I believe that I have significantly improved information and communications for members. I set up the 'RMT Platform' and 'RMT London Calling' websites, and produced newsletters of the same names. I have also encouraged and trained reps to use the websites and produce newsletters, so we probably have more rank-and-file communication than ever before.

We need to pursue this agenda nationally too. There have been big steps forward, but national communications are still too top-down. In particular, I would like to see RMT News report on rank-and-file views of campaigns and disputes, not just the General Secretary's!


GETTING ORGANISED

It doesn't matter what the union does in committee meetings if it is not relevant or organised in the workplace. I have pushed an 'organising agenda' within the union: supporting reps, organising training, recruiting more members, unionising in new areas, trying to get more reps recognised (whether industrial relations reps, health & safety reps, learner reps or harrassment reps), helping the reps we already have to be more effective, encouraging members to get active in many different ways.

I aim to take this approach to the union nationally, always trying to ensure that its organising approach is led by, and relevant to, rank-and-file workers, and that it understands and addresses the reasons why some workers don't join our union - in order to persuade them that they should!

Effective organising also means providing the best possible representation for members who need it. This includes legal support when you need it - an area where the union is currently falling short.


STANDING UP TO EMPLOYERS

I have represented union members at every level, from the local workplace to the Company Council, speaking up for individuals, grades and the workforce as a whole.

I always put our case as strongly as possible, and am not overawed by management. A particular highlight was giving a presentation to LU management explaining that all the top managers should take a hefty pay cut rather than cutting frontline staff's jobs! But I know that our real strength in negotiations comes from how strong and well-organised we are in the workplace.

We need an Executive member who will always argue our case as effectively as possible, but who understands that talks only succeed when the union is putting pressure on the company through action.


EQUALITY YES, DISCRIMINATION NO

RMT is a union for rail and transport workers of all races, both men and women, young and old. It must challenge discrimination and champion the rights of all its members, always seeking to promote unity and overcome division.


I have always been an active anti-racist, am a former chair of the union's national women's advisory committee, and actively oppose homophobia, age discrimination and all forms of prejudice.

RMT's committees for women, young members, lebsian/gay/bi/trans and black & ethnic minority members must go beyond being talking shops. At the moment, they are just 'advisory', and nothing comes of their discussions unless Executive members ensure that they are enacted. I will do this.


LOOKING OUTWARDS, WINNING SUPPORT

RMT's campaigns, for example against staffing cuts and privatisation, are also campaigns which benefit our passengers, and can attract support from trade unions in other industries. But RMT has to put more effort into asking for that support!

We need to link up with other unions in the transport industry and beyond, so that we can support each others' efforts. I have been involved with my local trades council in Hackney, where we campaigned against East London Line privatisation and are now supporting RMT's campaign against job cuts.

I have consistently advocated and taken part in public campaigns alongside our workplace struggles. I organised the public leafleting and petitioning which helped stop LU's last attempt to close ticket offices. I am currently working hard on the 'SOS: Staff Our Stations' campaign, which fights against job cuts both in workplaces and among passengers. Although public opinion on its own does not win our battles, it does help, and it boosts the morale of our own members.


WINNING OUR BATTLES

RMT needs to run its disputes more effectively. We can not continue to allow pay disputes to run for eight months or even longer, sapping members' morale. Disputes need to be better organised, action more decisive. The union should consider paying hardship money to strikers as other unions do. It should use 'action short of strikes' more often and with some imagination!

The union should give members support in standing up for themselves and taking action at work, for example refusing to do unsafe work, and insisting that managers respect our rights and agreements.

The union must also step up its campaigning to win the repeal of the anti-union laws which shackle us and other unions and which aim to prevent us using our democratic rights.

I have promoted ideas such as this as a rank-and-file activist, and now, with your support, want to promote them on the union's natioanl executive.


A POLITICAL UNION

RMT needs to be political, because political issues affect our members - whether it is child benefit cuts or anti-union laws, climate change or education policies. The union can most effectively involve members in supporting these issues if it is doing an effective job on workplace issues. RMT's international solidarity should be based on links with workers not regimes, and on practical solidarity rather than jet-setting!

RMT should continue to work with those Labour MPs who stand up for our interests, such as John McDonnell, and support candidates against the mainstream parties where this is credible and represents genuine working-class interests.

I am a socialist, and have been active in community and other campaigns as well as trade unionism.


VOTE JANINE BOOTH
- 100% committed
- more democracy, less bureaucracy
- a relevant, effective union
- all grades count
- keeping you informed
- effective organisation at work
- standing up for rank-and-file members
- supporting equality, opposing discrimination
- a campaigning, outward-looking, political union
- solidarity amongst ourselves and with other working-class people
- a proven record of fighting for - and carrying out - these principles

Court Bans RMT Strike - It's Nothing To Do With Justice

The court ruling injuncting RMT's strike of Network Rail signallers lays bare Britain's trade union legislation for what it is: a set of laws designed not to ensure justice but to stop workers fighting back against the employers' offensive.

Network Rail plans to slash 1,500 maintenance workers' jobs. Despite the fact that this will endanger rail travellers, chuck people on the dole and screw up the working lives of those who remain, there is no law that stops Network Rail doing this. It didn't have to ballot anyone, let alone provide its opponents with incredibly detailed information of exactly whom it balloted.

It is also attacking the working conditions of signallers, imposing anti-social rosters, increasing their safety responsibilities by stopping the use of track detonators, and taking away their rights to transfer and promotion. Again, no law to stop them; no need to ballot.

Network Rail's employees want to object to this. They have no say in how the company is run, their lobbying of politicians has fallen on deaf ears, and although they have leafleted the public and gained a lot of public support, the employer and the government ignores that too. There is only one effective weapon in their arsenal - their right to withdraw their labour.

Techncially, they have the legal right to strike. But in practice, this seems to be a bit like me having the 'right' to do an Army obstacle course - there are so many walls to climb over, nets to crawl under and bogs to wade through that with the best will in the world, I probably wouldn't manage it.

Trade union legislation requires unions to give employers advance notice of both its ballot and of the industrial action it plans to take, so that the employer can do as much as possible to minimise the effect of the action. That is quite bad enough. It is like Accrington Stanley playing Manchester United in the FA Cup and having to send ManU their team sheet and tactics a week in advance so that their top-flight opponents can have a massive advantage and a clear headstart towards winning.

But worse still, the union's notification of the ballot has to be so detailed that it is near-impossible for a union to meet, particularly if it organises workers in a variety of grades and work locations with a high turnover. It has to send a list - or matrix - stating the exact number of workers in every grade and every location involved in the industrial action ballot. On London Underground, for example, we have hundreds of work locations (nearly 300 stations, plus all the depots, admin buildings, etc), and dozens of grades, with people changing grade and/or location all the time.

And worse still, the employer does not even have to give the union the information it has that would help the union to compile that information! So Network Rail does not have to tell RMT that one of its signal boxes has burned down, and can then get a judge to declare a strike ballot illegal because RMT included that box in its ballot notification.

There are strong echoes of another judge banning Unite BA cabin crew for striking at Christmas because it had balloted staff who had expressed an interest in voluntary severance, even though the employer had not told the union that they had expressed an intersted in volunary severance!

The fact that these laws and rulings are nothing to do with fairness is frequently underlined by those who celebrate them. Read and listen to comments welcoming the court's ban on the RMT strike. Very few vox pops say "I wouldn;t have a problem with this strike if they had only got the postcode of that signal box correct". No, they say "I'm glad the strike's been banned, because now we can impose our job cuts / I'll be able to get my train on time / I hate bolshy workers and militant trade unions anyway."

RMT will almost certainly reballot and continue its fight against these catastrophic job cuts. But the question remains: WIll the TUC call a massive mobilisation in defence of a fundamental right that has been stripped away by successive Labour and Tory governments - the right to strike?!

Does the Economic Crisis Mean that Employers "Have To" Cut Jobs?

I just wrote this for my blog on the RMT London Calling website, and since Stroppyblog regularly(ish) discusses matters concerning workers and the economic crisis, I thought I would share it with Stroppyreaders too.

Both London Underground and Tube Lines - and, no doubt, many other companies - will tell us that they "have to" cut jobs because of the economic crisis. But a look at London Underground's history shows that this is not just untrue - it is the opposite of the truth.

London Underground began in 1863, when private companies starting opening lines. By the 1920s, the Underground had expanded into a web of lines beneath London, run by several different private companies.

There was a recession during the 1920s, and the government gave a public subsidy to the private owners, explicitly both to improve the Tube and to create jobs at a time of high unemployment.

London Underground came into public ownership in 1933, under the new London Transport Passenger Board (LPTB).

The economy was again in recession, but public ownership led to investment, improvements and extensions on a large scale, with the added bonus of again creating jobs during another period of high unemployment. With the LPTB's New Works Programme announced in 1934, the Underground saw extensions to the Central, Northern, Piccadilly and Bakerloo Lines, electrification of the Metropolitan line north of Rickmansworth, and new tunnels, stations and escalators. Despite improvements slowing during the war, by 1947 the average speed of the train service had increased by 18% since 1933.

Cutting jobs during recession simply increases unemployment and worsens public services: it does not help economic recovery, and certainly does not help workers or service users. Instead, the government should give extra funding to London Underground to improve its services, increase its staffing levels, bring forward its upgrades, make its stations more accessible, and build extensions and new lines. And it should bring the engineering functions back into an integrated, publicly owned London Underground, without compensating the private owners who have sucked so much out of the system.

London Underground and Tube Lines may be using the recession as a pretext for attacking jobs and conditions - but they are actually doing the opposite of what needs to be done. The government can pay people benefits to be out of work; or it can pay them wages to carry out socially-useful work. It's obvious which is better, isn't it?!

Socialist and Gay Rights Campaigner? Guilty and Proud of it!

The Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association (LTDA) seems to have got itself all in a lather about my leftiness. Click here to read the latest issue of their 'Taxi' magazine, and turn to page 3. There you will find the shocking news that (a) I attended a meeting of the RMT London Taxis branch (hardly surprising, as I am the union's Regional Council Secretary, and (b) that I am a socialist and gay rights campaigner.

Firstly, may I congratulate the LTDA for being able to use Google. Secondly, can I assure them and everyone else that I am not in the least bit ashamed of being either a socialist or a gay rights activist, and have never sought to hide either. And thirdly, I'd point out that other than this, there are several factual inaccuracies in the article: the Socialist Alliance folded several years ago, and although I was a SA candidate a few times, I'm not sure I was ever a 'leading member' of it; I gave a brief-ish report to the branch meeting and certainly did not take up most of its time; RMT does not tell taxi drivers not to work during Tube strikes; I said nothing about automatic ticket machines; I did explain why London Underground's attacks on jobs and customer service were bad news for taxi drivers, as when people are driven off public transport and into their cars, taxis lose out too.

RMT's taxi driver members understand this last point, which is why several of them joined the union's Lobby of Parliament against Network Rail job cuts recently. When, around a decade ago, annual multi-fatality rail crashes seriously damaged public confidence in rail safety and therefore caused a drop in passenger numbers, taxi drivers saw a fall in trade from ranks at stations.

Fortunately, leading members of RMT's London Taxis branch see this attack for what it is: an attempt to whip up cheap, populist, right-wing sentiment against what the LTDA evidently sees as a rival organisation. Whichever organisation you think taxi drivers should be members of - whether RMT, Unite or LTDA - I'm sure all Stroppyreaders will agree that this sort of thing is beneath contempt.

SOS: Staff Our Stations

London Underground plans to close or cut most of its ticket offices, and to reduce station staffing by over 1,000 staff. To provide customer service and safety, London Underground stations need more staff not fewer. Popular opposition stopped planned ticket office closures in 2008; now we need the same popular opposition to stop them again.

I have set up a petition against the job cuts on the 10 Downing Street website. It will take you just a minute or so to add your name, and give a big boost to our campaign to save jobs.

Click here to sign the petition, which reads:

We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Stop plans to close ticket offices and cut staff on London Underground.

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Please feel free to forward this to anyone else who you think might support our campaign.

Death Knell for Tube PPP?

I've just written the following article for 'Solidarity' ...

A decision by the PPP Arbiter in December may prove to be a fatal punch to private infrastructure company Tube Lines and the whole ‘Public-Private Partnership’ set-up on London Underground.

The New Labour government imposed the PPP at the very end of 2002, despite widespread opposition. PPP organised the Underground’s infrastructure into three groups of lines, and transferred them to private consortia known as Infracos, two to now-defunct Metronet, one – the Jubilee, Northern and Piccadilly lines – to Tube Lines.

Metronet collapsed in 2007, and Tube Lines has now hit trouble, falling well behind schedule with its upgrade of the Jubilee line’s signalling, causing closures to the line which are trying passengers’ patience. PPP Arbiter Chris Bolt, an ‘independent’ government appointee, has blamed this on Tube Lines itself, mainly for signing a contract for the work with another private company, Thales, before knowing the detail of the project.

The Arbiter had to decide what Tube Lines’ costs should be for the second 7½-year period of the 30-year PPP contract, due to begin on 1 July this year, and therefore how much London Underground will have to pay Tube Lines in fees. During this period, Tube Lines will have to continue to maintain the infrastructure of all three lines, upgrade the Northern and Piccadilly lines’ signalling systems, and refurbish 38 stations, far fewer than the 100 it was originally required to improve because it underpriced this work in its original bid.

Tube Lines reckoned that this work would cost it £5.75 billion, London Underground reckoned much less, £4 billion; the Arbiter calculated £4.4 billion. This leaves London Underground with a worrying funding gap of £400 million, but Tube Lines with a potentially devastating one approaching £1.5 billion. The Arbiter also ruled that Underground stations and lines should close to allow access to carry out improvement works for far less time than Tube Lines had demanded (15.5 million Lost Customer Hours for minor closures rather than 35.6 million), causing it further difficulties.

So who will pay? Even if Tube Lines paid, the public sector would reimburse it through higher charges, and London Underground and Tube Lines agree that “it would be better value for money for TfL [Transport for London] to raise additional finance than for Tube Lines to do so”. But the government argued the case for PPP on the basis that the private sector could raise the money needed to maintain and improve the Tube more easily than the public sector could! Intentionally or not, this view undermines the whole case for PPP.

Although the Arbiter’s report may speed the collapse of Tube Lines and the return of its work to the public sector, this does not mean that the Arbiter is a friend of workers and passengers. The Arbiter supports Tube Lines’ recent cuts to safety inspections of track and escalators. He also wants the workforce to be more ‘flexible’ by working across all three lines rather than just one, and the response team to have fewer workers.

Tube Lines’ troubles come despite the very generous terms of the PPP contract. PPP guarantees a high rate of profit in the projected costs, and expects an Infraco to follow only Good, rather than Best, Industry Practice. It allows for not just inflation but “differential inflation” (real prices going up faster than official figures show) and even for the risk of differential inflation being higher than expected! PPP protects the Infracos from losses if their risks fail, but allows them to pocket the proceeds if their risks pay off.

Despite their failures to deliver quality improvements to schedule, the Infracos have benefited handsomely from PPP. The Arbiter has caught Tube Lines paying secondment fees to its own shareholding companies – Bechtel and Amey – way above the usual rate. When Metronet collapsed, its Chief Executive walked away with his pockets full while the public-sector Transport for London inherited 95% of the failed Infraco’s debt, setting the scene for the landslide of cuts that now threatens to engulf London’s transport.

The London Underground PPP is an indictment of New Labour, whose turn away from the working class in search of credibility with capital has been not only unprincipled but a spectacular failure.

But even if PPP collapses and the Underground’s infrastructure is fully re-integrated into the public sector, two big dangers remain: firstly, further attacks on workers and passengers due to the debt and the cross-party consensus on the need for public spending cuts; and secondly, that the Tories simply privatise the reintegrated London Underground. Then we may find out that that there is something worse than PPP.

Support RMT Eurostar Cleaners

Watch the video, read the press release, sign up to the campaign ...



RAIL UNION RMT today launched a global campaign in support of Eurostar cleaners who are locked in a bitter dispute with their employers - the Carlisle Group - over pay, threatened redundancies, the introduction of finger printing machines and the victimisation of a union representative.

At the end of last week the Eurostar cleaners took part in a rock-solid 48 hour strike with a noisy picket line taking their message of respect and justice out to the travelling public.

Today, RMT have linked up with international website Labour Start to launch a global email campaign targeted at Eurostar and calling on the company to intervene in the dispute and demand that their cleaning contractors pay their staff the London Living Wage, scrap the Orwellian finger printing machines and start treating the cleaners with the respect that they deserve.

The global Eurostar cleaners campaign can be reached here.

Bob Crow, RMT general secretary, said:

“Eurostar is a global brand and it makes perfect sense for us to launch a global trade union campaign in support of our members here in London fighting for justice.

“Eurostar cannot ignore the actions of their cleaning contractors, the Carlisle Group, which have forced our members into a campaign of industrial action. The cleaners voted 100% to strike which is a measure of how angry they are.

“RMT is determined to use every means at our disposal to win the fight for justice and respect for the Eurostar cleaners including a global cyber-picket to shine a spotlight on the appalling way that this group of workers is being treated.”

RMT AGM Report

This is the report that I wrote for Solidarity newspaper on the recent RMT AGM. I am preparing a more detailed report for RMT members.

Rail and transport union RMT held its annual general meeting from 28 June to 2 July, against a backdrop of employers attacking jobs and conditions across the industry.

The AGM was unanimously determined to resist these attacks. However, thousands of job cuts are going ahead, several strike ballots have been voted down, and it was not entirely clear how the union plans to turn this situation around.

Six years on from its foundation, Network Rail has still failed to harmonise the terms and conditions of workers who came to it from various contractor companies, and RMT members overwhelmingly defeated its latest harmonisation proposals in a recent referendum.

Rank-and-file members are critical of union’s campaign on this issue to date, and a resolution from the North East Region sought a guarantee that RMT would not agree harmonisation or restructuring proposals, in any company, that left any members worse off. This seemed to me a basic principle — workers do not join a union for it to negotiate a worsening of their working conditions, nor to allow employers to play off one group of workers against another. However, the majority of delegates were persuaded that the resolution would “tie the hands” of the Executive, and voted it down.

Delegates gave a retrospective endorsement to the “No2EU — Yes to Democracy” election campaign, passing a resolution from the Executive approving “No2EU” and resolving to organise a conference later this year to plan future electoral challenges. As I disagreed with the first of these but agreed with the second, I abstained, as did two other delegates, the rest voting in favour. However, several supporters of the resolution criticised the name “No2EU” and the lack of consultation with branches and members, largely supporting “No2EU” because they thought it better than doing nothing and gave them something to vote for.

Not a single delegate defended the Labour Party. Later in the week the AGM enthusiastically welcomed John McDonnell’s parliamentary report.

The AGM passed a resolution on Venezuela, with the standard left line of support for president Hugo Chavez — but delegates made some critical comments during the debate. Disappointingly, the AGM voted for a boycott of Israeli goods, overturning RMT’s “solidarity not boycott” policy. In this debate, Bob Crow broke the union’s rule that the General Secretary should defend existing RMT policy, instead giving a tubthumping speech for the boycott — earning himself a reprimand from the President, but only after it was too late to affect the outcome.

RMT’s AGM is different from many other unions’ conferences, as it has fewer than seventy delegates. The advantage of this is that everyone gets to speak on whatever issue they want to. But the disadvantage is that big sections of the membership are not represented.

While the structures do not prevent delegates criticising the leadership, I feel that aspects of the AGM’s culture suppressed criticism. We have a dominant General Secretary with a big personality, impressive speaking style and a decent (though flawed) record of standing up for members. This — together with a powerful desire for unity, for huddling together against the storm of the employers’ attacks — can quieten dissent even if the structures do not.

The “top table” got their way on everything, all week. That alone should set alarm bells ringing.

It Says Here ... that the unions will never learn

Sorry, been far too busy striking for any blogging.

To keep up with the Tube strike, try clicking here.

And here is a wee clip dedicated to the loathsome Evening Standard and much of the rest of the media ...




It says here that the unions will never learn
It says here that the economy is on the upturn
And it says here we should be proud
That we are free
And our free press reflects our democracy
Those braying voices on the right of the House
Are echoed down the Street of Shame
Where politics mix with bingo and tits
In a money and numbers game
Where they offer you a feature
On stockings and suspenders
Next to calls for stiffer penalties for sex offenders

It says here that this year's prince is born
It says here do you ever wish
That you were better informed
And it says here that we can only stop the rot
With a large dose of Law and Order
And a touch of the short sharp shock

If this does not reflect your views you should understand
That those who own the papers also own this land
And they'd rather you believe
In Coronation Street capers
In the war of circulation, it sells newspapers
Could it be an infringement
Of the freedom of the press
To print pictures of women in states of undress?

When you wake up to the fact
That your paper is Tory
Just remember, there are two sides to every story

Protesting Somewhere Near-ish the Israeli Embassy

Here we are, protesting against Israel Railways' threat to sack Arab workers.

I had been told in advance that we would be stuck in a pen on the other side of the road. But I had assumed that this meant the other side of the road that the Israeli embassy was on. Oh no: it was the other side of a completely different road! We couldn't even see the embassy!

When Bob Crow tried to knock on the embassy's door to follow up his letter asking for a meeting, he was stopped by a couple of serious-looking chaps carrying what looked very much like sub-machine guns.

Nonetheless, we made some noise and alerted passers-by to the issues. More importantly, Israeli and Palestinian trade unions and campaigners know that we organised this action, which will boost their fightback against this racist policy.

The pressure of the workers' campaign and the international support it is attracting may be starting to gain results. The Labour Court has ordered Israel Railways to review its policy giving consideration to equalities legislation. Israel Railways has submitted a new policy, which backs down a little, but still discriminates against Arabs, and will still lead to some Arab railworkers losing their jobs. So it is round one to the workers, but with some more rounds to go before we win outright.

I am particularly pleased with this protest because it comprised trade unionists taking action directly in support of trade unionists in another country. That might not sound a big deal, but it is actually quite different from what most unions do. How so? Most trade unions 'contract out' international campaigning by simply funding campaign groups and circulating their stuff. It gets them out of having to do something more practical and effective.

Moreover, on the issue of Israel, many unions are content to support boycotts instead of taking action, as though encouraging a few members to have an ethically-pure shopping list is enough to not have to bother with any real solidarity.

As in most unions, no doubt, many RMT members can be cynical about international campaigns, especially if the union is not doing enough to win better pay and conditions for its own members, seeming pre-occupied with 'irrelevant' matters abroad. But a campaign such as this one can overcome that cynicism, as it is in direct solidarity with people like them - with rail workers facing discrimination and threats to their jobs.

Support RMT's Fightback Against Job and Pay Cuts

I suspect my plea for messages of support for our industrial action ballot on London Underground and Transport for London may have been a little crowded out by our Friday Fuckwit Pastor Phelps. So this is a wee post to bump it back to your attention.

Tomorrow, RMT sends out ballot papers to nearly 10,000 members on LU and TfL. You can read about the issues here on the 'RMT London Calling' website, which is run by reps and activists in the union's London Transport region, not by head office. Suffice to say, we face 1,000 job cuts, thousands more to come, a 5-year pay freeze that amounts to a year-on-year pay cut, and a clampdown on attendance and discipline involving stories of injustice that would make your hair curl.

Management are laying it on thick that workers in other industries are losing their jobs and agreeing to pay cuts or freezes, trying with some success to make RMT members feel guilty and selfish for standing up for ourselves. The truth is that if RMT did not fight back, it would not save one single job or or stop any pay cuts in any other industry. Conversely, effective action by Underground/TfL workers may start to turn the tide of workers taking the hit for the bosses' crisis.

It would be a real boost for workers' morale and confidence if we could circulate messages of support. Tell Tube workers that we are right to fight back, that accepting attacks on pay and jobs will not help workers in other industries one bit, that the bosses have got a rank cheek telling workers that we have to pay for their crisis and that we should tighten our belts while they are ostentatiously not tightening theirs.

Please email messages to me, giving your name and if relevant the union/campaign you are a member of.

Protesting for Jobs, Pay and Justice

The main reason for my sparse blogging of late is the amount of union work I have been doing. This is due to having been elected to a new post (RMT London Transport Regional Council Secretary), and due to the massive dispute we are entering into.

London Underground is cutting 1,000 jobs, and making a five-year pay offer of RPI+1% in year one, followed by RPI only for the next four years - in reality, a year-on-year real-terms pay cut. Meanwhile, RMT rightly accuses London Underground managers of an attendance and discipline crackdown, including breaking its own procedures. Transport for London (the Underground's parent company) plans an unspecified number of job cuts - probably running into thousands - and won't even talk to the union about pay, because, it says, the gap between the employer and the union is so wide as to make talks pointless.

While thousands of jobs are lost each week across industry, and some union bureaucrats think that the only way to stop this is to sign off pay cuts for their members (but not for themselves), it is good indeed that RMT is fighting back, and is balloting all its members in all grades in London Underground at TfL for industrial action.

You can read more about this dispute on the RMT London Calling website here, and more rank-and-file views here.

But I know that Stroppyblog reader like a nice set of protest pics, so here is the demo that I joined this morning at 7.30am ...

Euro Election: An Opportunity Grabbed Then Wasted

If all the practicalities work out, there will be a list of trade union candidates on your ballot paper in June's European elections - but with the unfortunate title of 'No to EU - Yes to Democracy'. The first half of this statement should be great news, but it leads into a second half which is bad news.

With thousands of jobs being lost every week, workers facing pay cuts and public services being slashed and privatised - and Labour along with the parties that have always backed the bosses allowing this to happen - there is a crying need for an election campaign that stands for the interests and demands of workers. A socialist election campaign for jobs, services and democracy.

This need is even more pressing given the BNP's high chance of getting Euro seats and the big bucks that go with them. Mainstream anti-fascism's slogan of 'Vote for anyone but the BNP' is unconvincing and has limited effect when the 'anyone' is just a range of anti-working-class parties. To hope to mobilise working-class people to outvote the BNP, it seriously helps to have someone who deserves our vote.

So a national campaign fielding lists of trade-union candidates in every region is a great idea. And good on the RMT for looking to officially endorse such a thing.

But there is a problem, and a big one at that. In fact, there are three problems: the politics of the slogan, the narrowness of the platform and the way in which it has been put together.

As the recent oil refinery walkouts showed the need for the working class to fight back but to avoid nationalism, the slogan 'No to EU' encourages that nationalism just when it is important to challenge it. Our priority now has to be to promote and organise Europe-wide (and broader) workers' unity. We should offer an alternative vision of a workers' Europe rather than suggest that isolated British capitalism is somehow better than a European capitalists' club. We should indict capitalism - rather than simply 'the EU' - for the havoc its crisis is wreaking on working-class lives.

Having said that, 'No to EU' is RMT's policy, and I am very much in favour of unions fighting for their policies in the electoral arena. It would be wrong to say that unions should assert only those of their policies that I agree with!

But even if you agree with RMT's policy (as probably the majority of activists and members do), 'No to EU - Yes to democracy' is far too narrow a focus. Although there is some logic to a candidacy in the European Union's elections to focus on the politics of the European Union, there is no reason at all why it should do so exclusively. This is a reckless missing of a good opportunity to fight for a broad programme of working-class demands.

A socialist electoral challenge should not just be a bare political statement. It should be something through which current workers' struggles can express themselves in the electoral field. Current fights such as those against Post Office privatisation or the thousands of job losses in the railway industry will not find an expression in 'No to EU - Yes to Democracy'. On the other hand, workers involved in those struggles could well have used a broader jobs/services/democracy platform to express our grievances and give impetus to our fightback.

It is as though the union has picked up a powerful weapon then pointed it in the wrong direction. Meanwhile, most other unions either continue to wield a weapon that for several years has been pointing at themselves (the Labour Party), or refuse to wield a weapon at all.

RMT's support for 'No to EU - Yes to Democracy' has been agreed by the union's Executive, but not until after a letter from 'No to EU - Yes to Democracy' had circulated implying RMT's support! It was then presented to the union as a done deal, with no opportunity to debate the name or the platform. It came upon us with very little warning: it was not mentioned at the RMT-sponsored conference on working-class political representation in January, and when Bob Crow spoke at our Regional Council meeting at the end of January, he suggested that there might be 'People's Charter' candidates in the Euro elections (a much better, if imperfect, prospect). Many RMT activists are unhappy at having this imposed without debate, and even if there is no outcry, neither will there be a great deal of enthusiasm or active involvement in the election campaign.

The source of both the poor politics and the undemocratic practice is the same: the CPB / Morning Star. Fresh from helping Derek Simpson limp to re-election, the Star has now reverted to the obsession that has gripped it for decades: that All Bad Things Come From The EU. It is a dead-end that leads away from the internationalist socialism we need and which succours the nationalism that divides our movement.

Stalinism casts a long shadow.


By the way, there is already a blog called 'No2EU'. It links to the UK Independence Party and is written by someone called 'Bulldog'.

Workers Snowed In And Frozen Out

Here's an article I've just written for 'Solidarity':

The heavy snowfall at the beginning of February prevented many people from attending work. While a few employers did the decent thing and paid them anyway, many workers have found themselves losing pay or leave.

The small minority included Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust and Croydon Council, which not only paid staff who could not attend, but gave staff who did make it to work an extra day’s leave entitlement to thank them! Union reps in other workplaces should demand that their employers do the same.

Some other employers allowed staff to work from home, or at locations other than their normal workplace that were easier to get to, or allowed workers to go home early.

These, however, were the exceptions. Solidarity has heard from many workers whose bosses will deduct either pay or leave for the days of absence - and even an NHS employer which refused to grant carer's leave for staff whose children were unable to attend school, in breach of its own policy!

Some schools have tried to dock pay, claiming that the kids got in OK, failing to take into account that teaching and other staff often live further away, and that some could not even get out of their streets. We have also received reports of hospitals and local authorities cancelling services to clients, but still penalising the workers who were unable to attend work to deliver the cancelled services!

One NHS worker told us, "Everyone is angry about it - especially as management didn’t bother to show until the thaw."

Greenwich Primary Care Trust told its staff that they should take the snow days as days owing or annual leave. One worker explained that, "The managers are pushing for the day owing and asking people to work an extra shift (or two, if they could not get in on Tuesday) in the next month. Our ward manager is arguing that a) our country is in crisis so we need to do our bit b) our failing PFI needs our support because it has got itself into huge debt. We should make it clear who should pay for the crisis and what we do about PFIs. The most shocking thing at our trust was that the support staff (cleaners, porters, domestics), all employed by ISS, were not offered taxis or beds, and most people I've spoken to had long walks home. I'm going to take it up with the union."

Trade unions should raise this issue as a matter of urgency, demanding that no-one be penalised for being physically unable to attend work. The TUC issued a statement arguing that "workers should not have to foot the bill for bad weather conditions", but was at pains to point out to employers that if they behaved like "Scrooge bosses", it would add to their "business woes" by demoralising staff!

London Underground workers were particularly annoyed to face loss of pay or leave, when the reason that many of them could not get to work was that their own employer – Transport for London (TfL) – had cancelled all the buses!

Within a few days, nearly 50 workers had put their names to a collective grievance organised by RMT, and company Directors had to discuss it with union officials. As the grievance stated, "This was not a day's holiday for us, but a day on which we tried to get to work but could not. This situation arose through no fault of our own."

Tube unions TSSA and RMT both issued press releases, leading to high-profile coverage in London, and a week after the heaviest snowfall, the Evening Standard reported that Mayor Boris Johnson had backtracked, his spokesperson saying: "The Mayor has absolutely no intention of penalising anyone who failed to get to work due to last week's exceptional weather." It seems that making a fuss has made the employers back down, although workplace union reps will still have battles on their hands about individual cases.

Support the Tube Cleaners

Press release :



LABOUR REPRESENTATION COMMITTEE
www.l-r-c.org.uk



The LRC supports demonstration against victimisation of tube cleaners

The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) supports the RMT TUBE cleaners who will be demonstrating tomorrow (8th January 09) at the Greenwich offices of cleaning contractor ISS against its victimisation of union reps following last year’s successful strike for the London living wage.

One RMT rep has already been sacked and another faces disciplinary charges in vindictive attacks on the union following its historic victory against ISS and other Tube cleaning contractors.

John McDonnell MP, Chair of the LRC, said…

‘Being able to engage in trade union activities is a basic human right.
It is a disgrace that since the strike action in July, large numbers of trade union activists have faced victimisation and disciplinary action.’

'I completely support the living wage campaign led by the RMT tube cleaners - who provide an essential job for Londoners and yet face daily exploitation and abuse.’

Note to editors:

* Some 700 RMT cleaners working for cleaning subcontractors ISS, ITS, ICS and GBM took strike action in June and July last year, winning a commitment to pay the London living wage of at least £7.45 an hour.

* Clara Osagiede, secretary of RMT’s tube cleaners’ group, faces a gross misconduct charge despite being on recognised union duties when she was accused of failing to return to her workplace. Local rep Mary Boakye has already been fired on trumped-up charges of sleeping on the job. Both face hearings on Thursday, and RMT members and supporters will gather at 11 am outside the company’s Greenwich office, Hamilton House, 15 Park Vista, SE10 9LZ.

* John McDonnell MP and Tony Benn, on behalf of the LRC, have written to ISS to express support for Clara Osagiede and Mary Boakye.

* The Labour Representation Committee (LRC) is a democratic organisation with six national trade union affiliates (including the RMT).