PPP IN CRISIS/EVENING STANDARD GETS IT WRONG

october 2005 :: RMTnews 7 T he union has secured the publication of a correction from the Evening Standard and Simon Hughes arising out of an article published in the Evening Standard on 27 May 2004. The contents of that article were drawn from a press release issued by Simon Hughes. The article in the Evening Standard suggested that general secretary Bob Crow earned up to £23,000 per year personally from his position on the Board of Transport for London and that he had not attended meetings for more than a year. This was simply not true; any money received from TfL in connection with Bob’s position on the board was paid straight to the union’s Orphans’ Fund. Bob attended meetings during this period that were significant to the union and its members. Bob did not receive any money at all for his work on the board. In the correction, which was published in the Evening Standard, Mr Hughes and the Evening Standard said that the published information had been obtained from the TfL website. Both now confirmed that the director’s fee was actually paid to the Orphan’s Fund and that Bob had attended meetings. This follows the union’s success against The Times which had to pay damages and costs in relation to an article published in relation to the presidential elections. RMT solicitor Richard Arthur of Thompsons said that the message was spreading that the right-wing media could no longer get away with publishing what it wants about the union and its officers. “If necessary, the union will use libel laws to call sections of the media to account – even if that does mean using laws more commonly associated with film stars than trade unions,” he said. EVENING STANDARD GETS IT WRONG AGAIN! The Public-Private Partnership (PPP) privatisation of London Underground infrastructure and maintenance is in deep crisis following the Northern Line shutdown earlier this month. The failure of the emergency braking system five times in as many weeks led to drivers refusing to take out trains until they could be assured it was safe for staff and the travelling public. The problem centred on part of the emergency braking system known as the tripcock, which is supposed to stop the train if it passes a red signal. This system failed four times and there was a further incident after the fault had supposedly been fixed by Alstom – who had sub-contracted the work from Tube privateer Tube Lines. The Alstom contract is a separate PFI deal worth around £429 million. Following the threat of a ballot for industrial action, LUL management finally listened to RMT and agreed not discipline or stop the pay of Northern Line drivers that refused to undertake duties that endangered lives. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union would not tolerate staff being caught between a web of contractors and sub-contractors and a situation that undermines safety. London Underground also took direct charge of the work after issuing Tube Lines with an emergency order, underlining the chaos caused by PPP. Tube Lines sub-contractor Alstom is a French firm that shut down train- making facilities at Washwood Heath in Birmingham two years ago and moved production to Spain after it won the £100 million contract to build new Tube trains and carriages for the Jubilee line. Following the Northern Line debacle, Transport for London commissioner Bob Kiley demanded that Alstom’s PFI contract to maintain trains should be terminated and complained that the lines of authority were not clear under PPP. “It isn’t right you can truly be responsible for train operations without having responsibility for the maintenance and renewal of the physical plant,” he said. Bob Crow said it was time for PPP to be scrapped in the interests of safety and the taxpayers, who are paying out millions to subsidise the private sector. “It is now clear to the public that all Tube maintenance must be brought back in-house in the interests of safety as has been done on the mainline rail network,” he said. PPP IN CRISIS AFTER NORTHERN LINE DEBACLE