PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

www.rmt.org.uk :: april 2007 :: RMTnews 25 Since my last column our Network Rail members have been out on strike right across Scotland and I salute their solidarity and resolve. As usual there were all the safety breaches, including scabs running signalling equipment. Every one of our members says the same thing when they see this happens. But where is the Railway Inspectorate when we need them? Likewise we see all the stories in the media attacking our union and peddling lies about trains running. The truth is that our member’s action and threatened further days has forced Network rail make concessions on the 35 hour week and Cognisco rules- testing that were not forthcoming before the strike action. Well done to those members, all of your union is proud of you. I recently attended the maritime seminar that RMT organised in the House of Commons. Our seafarer members, who have sustained attack after attack over the years, were able to put questions shipping minister Stephen Ladyman. The minister’s approach was, to say the least, to grovel. After 10 years in power and after telling us that the industry now makes £10 Billion pound a year for the economy, we had to “get real” and accept the appalling treatment of our members in the industry because – and I use his words – “these employers have a gun to our heads, and they are not afraid to pull the trigger!” As one experienced seafarer said to me on the way out: “You would think that he was the Minister for the Chamber of Shipping”, ie the bosses. He should be ashamed of himself lecturing us about the “real world” when in fact we do live in it, unlike the ship owners. Engineering members employed by Metronet, on the London Underground, have backed strike action and action short of strike action against the outsourcing of their jobs. Staff are being threatened with being transferred out of their current employment and face a very uncertain future working in a fragmented workforce. It’s as if all of the lessons of British Rail privatisation and worse safety and workers rights have not been learned by either the government, Metronet or anyone else. Well, one group of people do and RMT will resist this attack on our agreements and terms 100 per cent. Last month I presided over a Special General Meeting (SGM) in Doncaster which voted overwhelmingly to take offshore workers presently organised in the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee (OILC) into the union. Delegates from our union from throughout Britain voted on the issue of transfer of OILC members into RMT. The quality of the debate at the SGM – which is the highest level of government of our union – was very high. Delegates were clearly determined to set a course to build this union into a bigger, stronger organisation to defend workers. They are determined to maintain our RMT traditions and identity of being a democratic, fighting union. John Leach A democratic, fighting union Dear editor, As the elections for the Scottish Parliament and the Local Councils approach, the mouthpieces of big business, the main political parties, all of whom offer the continuation of a system which acts in the interests of the wealthy and privileged, are avidly seeking our votes. Their smoke and mirrors trickery promotes the pretence of acting “for the many and not the few” and only the delusional would believe that a change in the Labour Party leadership would mean anything different. Last year’s divisions within the Scottish Socialist Party, which resulted in Tommy Sheridan and others forming a new party – Solidarity, have resulted in the predicted dilemma facing our members and other voters viz two socialist parties claiming the same political ground. Our union, faced with the split, had in my view no alternative but to disaffiliate from the SSP. As an active member of the SSP – a candidate at the last election – I believed that it was an inclusive, democratic movement, but when I read that the faction instrumental in causing the split declare that they saw themselves as the “SSP- within-the-SSP” I ask myself - did they ever consider the value of RMT involvement? Political parties, like trade unions, are not just about policies for change they are also about credible and accountable leaders. For me, the SSP failed in that basic tenet and that is why, after a considerable time of reflection, I resigned from the SSP. I am not a member of any political party but this time round I will lend my vote for socialist change to Solidarity. John Milligan VOTE SOLIDARITY President’s column