KEEP EAST LONDON LINE PUBLIC

www.rmt.org.uk :: october 2006 :: RMTnews 7 TUC delegates in Brighton overwhelmingly backed RMT and TSSA calls for London Mayor Ken Livingstone to scrap “completely unnecessary” plans to privatise the East London Line when it reopens after extension in 2010. RMT delegate Bob Law, a driver on the East London Line, told Congress how he lost his job as a guard in 1985 when Ken Livingstone was in charge of the GLC and now he was worried about his job with Ken in charge of the GLA. “It remains me of that line in Carry on Cleo, ‘infamy, infamy, he’s got it in for me’,” he told amused delegates. He said that privatisation had been a disaster on the rail network and committing the same nightmare on London Underground would be resisted. The bidding process started by Transport for London has been shrouded in secrecy and the union has complained to London Rail over the absence of consultation over the plan and the lack of transparency surrounding the process in which four private-sector bidders have already been shortlisted. Early day motion 2398, tabled by John McDonnell MP, opposing the sell off has already been signed by around 20 MPs. “Hiving off the East London Line to the private sector is completely unnecessary and the TfL have the power to make sure it doesn’t happen,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. He said that after the painful experience of privateers running the railways and raking in millions for making a total hash of promised improvements to the Tube’s infrastructure, it defied belief that the same mistake is proposed for the East London Line. “Mountains of evidence, report after report, public opinion, the rail unions, the TUC and the Labour Party all say that rail privatisation is bad news, and even LUL management opposes this plan,” said Bob. The union has argued that the extension of the East London Line is a welcome boost for London in the run-up to the Olympics, but bringing in private operators is the big flaw in the plan. RMT has produced postcards to send to the mayor’s office and your MP which are available from head office. N early three-quarters of people in London and the southeast want the East London Line’s operations kept in the public sector, according to an Ipsos MORI poll. Some 74 per cent of those interviewed believed that the extended East London Line should continue to be operated by the public sector when it re- opens after extension in 2010. Just one person in ten wanted the line's operations to be handed to a private operator. "Commuters and rail workers alike have had a belly-full of privatisation and it beggars belief that anyone could want to hand over any part of the Tube's operations to the privateers," RMT general secretary Bob crow said. "Unfortunately the mayor of London is trying to kid us that handing East London Line operations to a private-sector operator is somehow not really privatisation, but you can't justify privatisation by trying to redefine it. "The simple fact is that TfL intends to remove East London Line operations from London Underground, which is publicly owned, and transfer them to a private franchisee. "It is not too late for the mayor to keep the East London Line public, and this poll should tell the mayor just how far his plan is out of step with what Tube users and Tube workers want," Bob said. TUC backs campaign to keep privateers hands off the East London Line KEEP EAST LONDON LINE PUBLIC PUBLIC OPPOSES PRIVATISATION RMT members lobby TUC to keep ELL public Bob Law speaks