PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column It has been a busy and interesting time for transport issues in Parliament. Not least because my own early day motion 730 in opposition of the introduction of huge 60 tonnes lorries in the roads of this country has attracted the support of almost a hundred MPs. The EDM recognises the environmental benefits of rail freight over other transport modes. For instance the average aggregate freight train can remove up to 120 HGV lorries from the road network. The government has already taken steps to encourage modal shift from road to rail. However, the introduction of longer and heavier goods vehicles that could weigh up to 60 tonnes and be as long as 25.25 metres onto the UK road network is a step in the wrong direction. So ask your MP to sign up to EDM 730. In the coming months the government will publish its 30-year rail strategy and this will lead to a Rail White Paper. Due to increasingly pressing environmental concerns there is little doubt that we need a substantial increase in capacity in freight and passenger rail services to get people and freight off the road and onto rail. That is why I raised an adjournment debate in the House of Commons in February in which I pressed the Government to support plans for a new dedicated rail freight line from Glasgow to the Channel Tunnel which would take more than five million lorry journeys off Britain’s roads every year. I am pleased to see that RMT is organising a special seminar in Parliament called The Future of Rail on June 20 to discuss this issue. Rail minister Tom Harris will be taking part and I would encourage RMT members to get along and put your views on the way forward. RMT’s recent survey of bus workers survey has also pointed out that there is something deeply wrong in the bus sector. Employers are paying rock- bottom wages and driving down conditions as profit takes front seat over service provision. The bus industry needs better regulation, and government plans for better regulation outside London is a step in right direction. However, it is becoming increasingly clear that more decisive action should be taken to regain public democratic control over this important part of the transport network. Following a recent House of Commons seminar on shipping hosted by the RMT parliamentary group, there will be a consultation exercise by the government on the unsatisfactory exemptions within the Race relations Act when it comes to seafarers. RMT pressure has highlighted the fact that seafarers can still be discriminated against on the basis of their nationality. RMT’s parliamentary group will be involved in this process and continue to campaign for justice for seafarers. It is unacceptable that ship owners can dump UK shippers and replace them with exploited foreign labour due to a loophole in the Race Relations Act. Finally, I am pleased to be speaking at a conference on the EU Constitution on June 16 organised by Trade Unionists Against the EU Constitution in London. Despite the fact that millions of working people in France and The Netherlands and the TUC Congress here in Britain rejected this privateers’ charter back in 2005, the EU is determined to impose it anyway without recourse to referendums. This clear negation of all the democratic traditions of the labour movement must be opposed. The imposition of the EU Constitution without consent presents a danger not only to organised labour but to the future of democracy itself. So get along on June 16 and get involved in the campaign for a referendum and the rejection of the Constitution. Kelvin Hopkins MP for Luton North AT THE CROSSROADS www.rmt.org.uk :: may 2007 :: RMTnews 9 R MT has welcomed the Office of the Rail Regulator’s decision to refer the leasing of rolling stock for franchised passenger services to the Competition Commission. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that since privatisation, the key feature of the rolling stock sector has been large profits and sizeable shareholder dividends, with the three rolling-stock companies raking in around £1 billion a year in leasing charges. “It’s time for the government to devise a strategy for rolling stock that puts the interest of the passenger before profits. “The government’s intention to introduce 1,000 extra carriages onto the network should not be held to ransom by the ROSCOs,” Bob Crow said. The three principal passenger rolling stock leasing companies are Angel Trains, HSBC (Rail) UK Ltd, Porterbrook Leasing Company Ltd, all of whom are directly owned by private banks. RMT has consistently pointed to the absurdity of paying millions of pounds of public subsidy to the train operating companies, who then simply pass the money onto the ROSCOs that rake in huge profits. The most startling example is the payment of £140,000 per year by Island Line to Angel Trains for pre-second world war London Underground stock which have only scrap value. “RMT has been concerned for some time not just by the excess profits made by the ROSCOs, but also at the failure to protect highly skilled jobs in the rail engineering sector and the pressure on train operators to cut costs imposed by the recent high premium payment franchise awards,” Bob Crow said. RMT WELCOMES ROSCO INVESTIGATION