Letters

Letters to the editor RMT News, Unity House, 39 Chalton St. London NW1 1JD email: bdenny@rmt.org.uk Stand up and be counted Dear Editor, It is encouraging to witness how the RMT’s stand in the face of threats from the Labour Party continues to embolden others to do the same.This is reflected in John McDonnell’s lengthy article in the March edition of RMT News. John noted the need to stand up to privatisation, with particular reference to opposing the Government’s reliance on private money to resource the underground via PPP. I sincerely hope that the MP does indeed join our fight against the scandal of using privateers to finance public services so they can recoup huge profits at our expense. I do however still need convinc- ing, as, in the run up to the last election, apart from standing as the candidate of a party committed to wholesale privatisation of anything that moves, the Hayes and Harlington MP was proud to boast about his role in achieving resources that saw the construction of a local secondary school.What John failed to mention was that the school was a DBFO (Design, build, finance and operation) Private Finance Initiative project.The profiteers benefiting from this arrangement are none other than Jarvis. As a school support worker living and working in Hayes at the time, and being a shop steward with UNISON that was fighting PFI, I found this quite disheartening, especially as John was a UNISON sponsored MP. Clearly, we must be assured that this will not happen again now that Mr. McDonnell is in the RMT parliamentary group. Our union has shown its commitment to standing by its principles and defending workers without compromise, and those our union supports must not only talk about doing likewise, but actually act accordingly at all times. Yours sincerely, Roddy Keenan It pays to be union Dear editor, May I express, through the RMT magazine, my sincere thanks to union solicitors Drummond and Miller for their long term diligence and hard work acting on my behalf. They have represented me in relation to an accident at work nearly two years ago whilst I was working for First Engineering. Drummond and Miller took on board my case and won a result in my favour, which was settled just two days prior to going to court. It pays to pay your union fee to the only union, the RMT. Yours sincerely David Henry A successful settlement Dear editor, I would like to thank my union for all the help, advice and action needed to bring my case for redundancy pay against First Western National Buses Ltd to a satisfactory conclusion. Edward Duthie solicitors, who fought the case, got a pre-tribunal settlement, a little in excess of my demands. Yours sincerely John Hawkes We’ve never had it so bad Dear editor, Mr John Armitt’s well structured and informative “we’ve never had it so good” letter I received through the post this morning couldn’t have been timed more misfortunately in respect of signallers’ conviviality with Network Rail. Whilst I am not suggesting that our long-term opinion of the wage dispute (whichever stance we wish to take on it) would be affected, one would surely allow us to indulge in a little petulance seeing that a third of our April wage is still in the company bank due to a massive “oversight” in Manchester paybills. L.N.E.Z signaller. History in the making Dear editor, I am currently interviewing people who have lived and worked in King’s Cross for ‘King’s Cross Voices’, a major three year oral history project exploring the social history of the area. I am keen to interview RMT members about their memories of working at King’s Cross and St Pancras Stations.We’d love to hear from you! Please contact Alan Dein on 020 7713 7959 or email: AlanD@kings-cross.org.uk Alan Dein Bridge McFarland S O L I C I T O R S Have you got a problem you need legal help with? As well as offering expertise in a wide range of subjects we have specialists in employment law, personal injury, accidents at sea, diver’s claims and clinical negligence claims Home visits and telephone appointments can be arranged where appropriate 19 South St. Mary's Gate Grimsby, North East Lincolnshire DN31 1JE Tel. 01472 311711 www.bridgemcfarland.co.uk e-mail jrb@bmcf.co.uk 28