FULL AGM REPORT Pages 21 GRASS ROOTS TRADE UNIONISM ON RISE

www.rmt.org.uk :: august/september 2007 :: RMTnews RENATIONALISE THE BUS INDUSTRY Delegates called on the union to step up its campaign to restore the bus industry to public ownership “with utmost vigour”, condemning the privateers who were running it down and devastating morale among workers. South Devon Bus delegate Paul Rossiter said that since deregulation of the buses in 1986 “we’ve seen pay eroded and the job satisfaction has gone”. Paul cited the recent RMT survey which found that just 13 per cent of bus workers felt that their employers adequately rewarded staff, while two thirds said that poor pay and conditions were driving hundreds of workers to quit their jobs. “Drivers at the moment are on very poor pay - most of our younger members cannot afford to get a mortgage and have to pay sky-high rents,” he complained. Paul pointed out that public money is being handed over to the privateers, with little improvement to services. “The government gives money to bus companies in fuel subsidies and councils give them money through subsidised routes. “If councils don’t pay up the companies just withdraw the routes - the travelling public and our members deserve better,” he said. Poole and District delegate Robert Clarke complained that “all the money goes to shareholders - the passengers are not bothered with. “The companies cut out non- productive routes. They are just concerned with their profits,” he said. Senior assistant general secretary Mick Cash said that the union was “looking to push the government further than they’re going at the moment”. “They pushing for more regulation - and we support that - but only as a step towards renationalisation,” he added. DRIVE DOWN THE HOURS The AGM unanimously called on the executive council to press the government to reduce the maximum driving time of 10 hours a day - and the maximum time of five hours driving without a break - for reasons of CAMPAIGNING AND WINNING Full 2007 report of this year’s annual general meeting in Edinburgh RMTnews :: august/september 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 16 safety “and simple morality.” South Devon Bus delegate Paul Rossiter complained that the regulations meant that bus drivers were expected to cope with shifts far longer than drivers in the international road haulage industry. He said that it was “about time our industry recognised you can’t treat us differently from each other - it is high time this country recognised that domestic drivers suffer the same stress, the same fatigue and the same problems as our brothers in long haul”. ENGINEERING SAFETY Delegates insisted that the designated Controller of Site Safety (COSS) during engineering work should stick to monitoring safety, and condemned efforts by some employers to allow a COSS to set up a safe system of work and then take part in the work itself. Liverpool Network Rail delegate Mick McCabe said: “It’s very important if you’re doing a job like I do - ultimately you need 100 per cent concentration”. Fort William delegate Steve Wallace agreed, arguing that “if you’re in charge of a workforce on dangerous sites, you have to be in charge of colleagues’ safety - and solely in charge of colleagues’ safety”. Mick Cash said that the job of COSS should be the same as a lookout on track repair work. He pointed out that “it is Network Rail that makes the decisions” on this issue, and said that the executive would now look at whether to negotiate with NR direct or whether to set up a working party. BETTER PAY Conference condemned the poverty pay endured by many engineering grades - often lower than £16,000 a year. Delegates slammed bosses for forcing engineering workers to work excessive overtime in order to make ends meet. Lancaster and District delegate Steve Metcalfe said that the result of such low pay was “a high turnover and loss of staff”, adding that it would actually benefit the employers to “pay staff decently”. However, he noted that “it’s like banging your head against a brick wall trying to tell them that.” Mick Cash backed the resolution, but emphasised that “it is important to raise standards across all our membership”. AGM called for engineering grades to receive a base rate comparable with skilled tradesmen outside the rail industry, as a first step to remedying the problem. Delegates agreed that a high- profile RMT campaign on the issue could result in thousands of unorganised rail workers joining the union. DEFENDING THE GUARD Delegates condemned the rail privateers’ latest attempts to downgrade the vital safety role played by guards on trains. Delegates attacked the Rail Safety and Standards Board for amending the industry’s rulebook and removing the requirement for guards to remain at the controls of a train’s doors until it had safely left the platform. They warned that such a move placed passengers at risk from being trapped in doors. Bridgend Llantrisant and District delegate Steve Skelly called the move “yet another attack on the overall responsibilities of the guard”. Bristol rail delegate Chris Davidson added: “They’re just chipping away at the roles and responsibilities of guards - when there is an incident on the line we’re not going to have trained staff on the train to look after the safety of passengers. “We are absolutely sick to the back teeth of our roles and safety being compromised - especially by an organisation that’s supposed to ensure that safety standards are being upheld.” Assistant general secretary Pat Sikorski said that the union was taking action to protect the role of guards, but warned that industrial action might become necessary. ENDING FRAGMENTATION South London Rail delegate Paul Cox warned the AGM that the problems caused by rail fragmentation and privatisation affected all grades, not just train crews. He said that the situation was creating “tribalism”, with sometimes staff in the mess room “not talking to each other because they’re wearing different uniforms and work for different companies.” Paul said that there used to be a “common bond” among rail and transport workers, in the days before privatisation. He argued that it was now up to RMT to be this bond for all staff. “If we could do that this union would come on in leaps and bounds,” he said. AGM welcomed moves by the RMT leadership to improve the recruitment and retention of members, such as the successful new Education Centre in Doncaster, but stressed that it is primarily the rank and file activists who are in the forefront of organisation. Delegates urged all such activists and branches to make organisation and retention of members their top priority. Pat Sikorski agreed, noting that the rail privateers sought to divide workers by making them feel that their “first loyalty” was to the company, rather than to the union. FIGHTING LONE WORKING Delegates warned that the rail privateers’ obsession with squeezing more profits from the system was leaving staff dangerously alone in stations and trains. AGM voted unanimously to step up the union’s campaign against lone working - and to vigorously defend members who refused to work in such conditions on the grounds of safety. Bristol delegate Chris Davidson said: “Lone working is becoming more and more of a problem and it is putting our www.rmt.org.uk :: august/september 2007 :: RMTnews 17 members at risk. “We are sick and tired of lone working being introduced for reasons of profit and greed.” Chris told conference about a Bristol-based guard who was suspended after refusing to work on a late night train from Paddington which was notorious for drunken passengers - despite the company’s written policy supporting “refusal to work on safety grounds.” First Great Western had axed catering staff on the train, leaving the guard to deal with potential trouble alone. Union intervention eventually got the guard reinstated, but Chris stressed that this should not be necessary. “Why should this guard have to go through the stress of being suspended - of not knowing if he had a job to come back to?” he asked. London Underground delegate Brian Munro said that Tube bosses were trying to introduce lone working on the northern end of the Bakerloo Line - in some of London’s most crime-ridden areas. “This is unacceptable and we will not allow this dangerous practice on our line,” said Brian, revealing that a ballot of station and train staff for industrial action was underway - with all the signs of a massive Yes vote. “The response of our members has been magnificent,” he said, noting that the ballot had boosted union recruitment as well. COMBATTING ASSAULTS Delegates called for action to turn back the rising tide of assaults on staff – including action from staff and management alike. AGM agreed that the union must stress the importance of logging every assault - no matter how apparently minor, such as incidents of verbal abuse. This placed the onus on the employers to record the level of assaults and take action. Brighton delegate Gary Hassell said: “We’ve campaigned vigorously and continue to campaign vigorously on this issue. “It is totally unacceptable for anyone to go to work and face a battering or a barrage of insults and abuse,” he said. Feltham delegate Dave Rudland noted that many members did not bother recording incidents of abuse because it was “a daily occurrence.” Pat Sikorski agreed, noting that recently a member actually died, following an assault by two drunken bankers. He complained that these “pillars of the community” had been freed on bail, despite facing manslaughter charges - while union members who are assaulted are often blamed for inciting violence against them, and sometimes even sacked. Pat said that companies must be forced to prosecute every culprit who assaults or abuses a transport worker. NO TO EU DIKTATS AGM called for a referendum on the EU constitution, with delegates branding the document “a neo-liberal privateers’ charter” and urging a broad labour movement campaign against it. Bristol delegate Chris Davidson warned: “If we don’t have a referendum we will be giving our rights away - it’s bad enough dealing with out own government, let alone some unelected bureaucrats in Brussels”. Chris complained that in the past 20 years, not a single British voter had been given the opportunity to say what they would like to see happen with the EU. Plymouth delegate Nick Quirk said that the reason that the government was refusing to hold a referendum on the treaty was because it knew that the British people would reject it. Nick said that New Labour was “obsessed with spin” and was therefore trying to claim that there was no need for a vote. General secretary Bob Crow accused the TUC of “hiding behind the EU” to avoid fighting for union rights, arguing that its so-called “social dimension” had given French and German workers decent pay and conditions. “They only enjoy those because they fought for them themselves,” Bob pointed out, and warned that the EU has far different intentions. “You’ve got to know what beast you’re dealing with. “They want the privatisation of all public services and they want to smash the welfare state,” he said. Delegates also congratulated RMT members for supporting the struggle against EU rail “liberalisation” directives. Cinque Ports delegate Mike Sargent said that it was great to see RMT members at the joint demonstration against EU rail directives in Paris last February. But he warned that the battle against dangerous EU diktats, demanding the fragmentation of rail networks, was far from won. AGM unanimously backed his call to arrange a conference against rail privatisation and EU liberalisation directives in London. US SOLIDARITY AGM gave a warm welcome to US trade unionist Jack Hayman of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, who spoke of standards and conditions under attack across America as the costs of the illegal Iraq war mounted. Jack recalled first meeting Bob Crow on February 15, 2003, at the two million-strong anti- war demonstration in London. “And yet Blair would not listen to the people and Bush was the same way,” he bitterly recalled. “The overwhelming majority of people in your country and my country are opposed to the war in Iraq,” he said. “It is devastating our society - schools are being closed and jobs are being cut to pay for this war.” Jack concluded by quoting the great US socialist Eugene Debs - a rail worker who was jailed for opposing the First World War – who said “it is the master class that starts the wars, but it is the subject class that does the fighting”. SWEDISH GREETINGS Delegates then heard from John Rudén of Sweden’s Seko union, who said that his country was also suffering from a “new Labour” government, with “classical right wing policies” such as “tax cuts, privatisation and deregulation”. He said that, just as in Britain, all state-owned Jack Hayman addresses conference RMTnews :: august/september 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 18 enterprises were being sold off under so-called “public private partnerships”. John said that such privatisation and deregulation was, just as in Britain, sparking major concerns over safety on the Swedish rail network as everything was left to the privateers. “The market may be a good servant but it is a poor master,” he noted. TUC GREETINGS TUC general secretary Brendan Barber told delegates that “nowhere is the failure of neo- liberalism clearer than in transport”. He said that the deregulation of Britain’s buses had “clearly been a disaster”, with low wages and poor job security. Brendan noted that the scourge of poverty pay and bad conditions was also afflicting the shipping industry. “We must eradicate pay discrimination and remove the clause from the Race Relations Act which allows foreign nationals to be paid lower rates. “We must ensure that overseas workers cannot be exploited and British workers’ wages cannot be undercut,” he said. Turning his attention to the troubled Tube network, the TUC leader branded the “public private partnership” a “disaster” for Tube workers and passengers, before attacking the “botched Tory privatisation” of the railways. “Over £800 million is given to the industry every year, dwarfing the subsidy paid to British Rail, but for what - a shambolic service and lower safety standards”. He said that it was socially and environmentally vital to “get people out of their cars and on to trains and buses”, insisting that “leaving it up to the market simply won’t work”. He called on the trade union movement to lead the fight against neo-liberalism and “make the case for an integrated transport network run for need and not for profit.” SUPPORTING POST WORKERS AGM threw the union’s weight behind the postal workers’ struggle for pay justice, when Communication Workers Union national officer Bob Gibson updated delegates on his union’s national dispute. Bob said that Royal Mail bosses Allan Leighton and Adam Crozier “have no respect for the union, no respect for their workers and no respect for working people.” He said that many workers feared that they would find themselves barred from the premises on strike days, in a bid to smash the union. Some 130,000 postal workers were preparing to walk out on June 29th after talks with management broke down. Royal Mail staff are furious at a miserly 2.5 per cent pay offer and the prospect of 40,000 job cuts under the guise of “modernisation.” “We do need to modernise the industry, but modernising to them means cutting jobs and driving down our pay and conditions. These people are trying to destroy the industry.” He revealed that bosses told CWU officials “you don’t care about the industry or your members” - adding that this was an insult from fat cats who had only just entered the industry, directed at people who had worked for the postal service all their lives. “Postmen take home just £323 a week, while Adam Crozier got a £1 million bonus last year,” Bob pointed out. Bob blamed the government’s determination to open up the postal service to competition, asking: “Why introduce competition into what is supposed to be a public service?” Pointing out that 98 per cent of mail was delivered the next day, he asked: “So why introduce competition? The only reason is financial gain for the few and financial loss for the many.” General secretary Bob Crow pledged solidarity with CWU and welcomed its request to “adopt” branches during the dispute. REGIONAL WOMEN’S STEWARDS The AGM pledged to create regional women’s stewards to ensure that the ever-increasing number of women activists had a strong voice within the organisation. Delegates unanimously backed a resolution which called upon all Regional Councils to create such posts, to assist in the recruitment and organisation of women members. They agreed that women’s stewards should have proper access to regional union resources and should be able to claim reasonable expenses from the councils. London Underground delegate Linda Wiles said that such officials would be essential in “supporting and encouraging women to get involved in the union”. She insisted: “We need to raise the awareness of what our union does. A woman’s place is in her union - and that union is the RMT”. General secretary Bob Crow urged all branches to campaign on women’s issues, saying: “The more gains that we make, the more women will join us.” FIGHTING FOR PENSIONS Scottish National Pensioners Convention chairman George Henderson told the AGM that the struggle for pension justice was a struggle for all trade unionists. “Whatever gains the pensioners’ movement secures now will inevitably benefit the pensioners of tomorrow - your members,” he told delegates. “That’s why the solidarity between generations has to be more than just a slogan,” he said. George recalled that 2008 sees the centenary of the first ever old age pension, “which Brendan Barber addresses conference YOUTH AWARD: Transport for London branch chair Jo Parry collects this year’s RMT youth award. Jo works as a health and safety advisor for TfL. www.rmt.org.uk :: august/september 2007 :: RMTnews 19 was won after a 10-year campaign by the pioneers of the British trade union movement”. He said that the NPC would be using the occasion to call for improvements in the basic state pension and urged trade unionists to take a leading role in the campaign. He stressed how urgent the need for a decent pension is - with 2.5 million pensioners currently living below the poverty line, “with millions more struggling to pay their bills”. George noted: “Our pension is the least adequate in Europe at just £87 a week - and women don’t even get that”. He insisted: “When the Pensions Bill goes through later this year, the government will say that its job on pensions is done. It won’t be. “We still need a substantial increase in the state pension to around £136 a week, and a restoration of the link with earnings to make up for years of neglect,” he said. PENSION FIGHT TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty warned the AGM that industrial action over rail pensions was probably inevitable. Gerry warned that attacks on Network Rail workers’ pensions, which have already sparked strike action, signified the determination of rail bosses to “intimidate” workers. He joked that NR boss John Armitt was “so unpopular that if he was an undertaker people would stop dying”. He said that rail unions were already fighting hard to defend members from the worst excesses of the fragmented railway network, with staff “being shoved from pillar to post, shoved from one pension scheme to another without any say whatsoever.” The TSSA leader welcomed the closer links being forged between the two unions and pledged to keep working to put the organisations’ past differences behind them. He stressed that “our real enemies are not each other, they are the John Armitts and Graham Souters’ of this world.” Gerry noted that Mr Souter’s Stagecoach company had recently raised fares on South West Trains by an incredible 20 per cent, “without a murmur from the government”. He warned that a similar price increase was likely now that Stagecoach had been awarded the East Midlands rail franchise. RMT APPLAUDS MCDONNELL AGM gave RMT Parliamentary Group chairman John McDonnell MP a standing ovation before he’d even begun his report. John joked that he’d come straight from Parliament, “so it’s nice to be among friends”. He recalled that over the last 12 months of his campaign for the Labour leadership, “you really find out who your friends are”, and stressed that RMT had been “firm friends and allies”. He hailed the hard work of the Parliamentary Group, with strong campaigning on issues such as the need for a return to public ownership on the railways, the disastrous PPP on the Tube and the Trade Union Freedom Bill. John warned that a Gordon Brown premiership would mean more privatisation, more cuts in public services and more attacks on working people. He said that Mr Brown remained determined to force New Labour’s neo-liberal agenda on Britain and charged the new Prime Minister with an “incredible betrayal” of those unions who backed him within hours of assuming power John noted that just eight hours after being acclaimed leader Mr Brown declared that the Labour Conference would no longer be the official sovereign body of the party. “Trade unions will no longer have any say in policy-making,” said the MP, arguing that “the reality is that to defend working-class people now there will have to be extra- parliamentary activity”. He said that this should take the form of mass industrial action, co-ordinated between unions and sectors, with workers showing solidarity with PCS in its fight to save thousands of Civil Service jobs and CWU in its battle to preserve the Post Office as a public service. The MP said that his own campaign to become Labour leader had been successful in raising important issues such as public ownership and trade union rights and bringing them to the forefront of debate. But he admitted that there had been three major obstacles in his way - a “media blackout” by the mainstream media, the self-defeating support for Mr Brown by “some trade union leaders” and the difficulties faced in Parliament when it came to finding 40 Labour MPs prepared to back him. John said that it was the duty of the left to campaign hard in the “battle of ideas” ahead of the next general election. He said that the campaign should be a strictly “non- sectarian movement”, with groups such as the Labour Representation Committee working with any other like- minded organisations. General secretary Bob Crow thanked John warmly for the sterling work he’d done for the union, and said that he looked forward to many more years working together. But Bob pointed out that 92 per cent of trade unionists were eligible to vote for the Labour deputy leadership contest, but most didn’t bother. “In my opinion the Labour Party is dead - it’s over. “Of all the union-sponsored MPs, surely the general secretaries could have found 40 to back John,” he said. Bob finished by stating that working people had “totally lost confidence” in the Labour Party and argued that the sooner John left and stood as an independent MP the better. FOR TRADE UNION FREEDOM AGM condemned new Labour’s refusal to abolish the Tory anti- union laws and demanded the introduction of the Trade Union Freedom Bill. Delegates urged massive support yesterday for the Parliamentary rally and national demonstration for the Bill on October 18. Delegates also welcomed the TUC’s demand for the anti- union laws to be repealed and stressed the right of every Pipers welcome delegates worker to be represented by an effective fighting union. Brighton delegate Gary Hassell said that support for the Bill was a “no-brainer” and attacked laws “which give the bosses a chance to prepare for action while we have to go in with our hands tied behind our backs.” Cinque Ports delegate Mike Sargent noted that British trade unionists now have fewer rights than they did after the Taff Vale judgment of 1901. He attacked MPs for allowing the Trade Union Freedom Bill to be talked out in the Commons, while speeding through a Bill exempting themselves from the Freedom of Information Act. Bob Crow pointed out the unfair balance of power in industrial relations. Bob noted that unions cannot take lawful industrial action for up to five weeks, while bosses are allowed to impose detrimental changes to workers’ terms and conditions in a single day. He also condemned those union-sponsored MPs who have failed to sign up to the Bill, stressing that of over 300 such MPs, only 180 were openly supporting it. END ‘OFFSHORING’ Delegates called on the Scottish Executive to stop ship operators dodging their tax obligations by “offshoring” staff. AGM unanimously agreed to campaign against the move by Highlands and Islands ferry operator Caledonian MacBrayne, which was originally undertaken to cut costs prior to the service’s privatisation. Glasgow shipping delegate Fred Potter said that by off shoring its crew to a Guernsey- based crewing agency, Calmac had avoided paying £2 million in National Insurance contributions since February 2006. Fred said that the loophole was ostensibly set up to help create seafaring jobs, but had merely “helped fatcats line their already bulging pockets.” He noted that the tendering exercise forced upon the ferry service had cost £17 million, even though the sole rival bidder dropped out. Aberdeen shipping delegate Neil Keith condemned the whole process, arguing that it was “ridiculous” that it favoured “the lowest bidder rather than the safest bidder.” General secretary Bob Crow said: “Every penny withheld in National Insurance by offshoring is money taken away from the NHS, pensions and social security. “I don’t know how the private shipping employers who take tax breaks with one hand and withhold NI with the other hand can bring themselves to look in the mirror, but it is breathtaking that a publicly- owned company should ever have been sent down the same path.” FAIR FARES? Delegates unanimously backed proposals for a united campaign with rail passengers for “a complete overhaul of rail fares, a system of proper regulation and a coherent fare structure”. On the same day that privateer Stagecoach announced a 38 per cent increase in pre-tax profits to £162 million, the AGM warned that the confusing and expensive array of fares was “destroying our railways”. Delegates dismissed the toothless system of fares regulation as a “joke”, noting that many train companies were allowed to increase “regulated” fares by up to 9 per cent - or by abolishing cheap options such as the Super Saver ticket, up to 26 per cent. Pat Sikorski complained that “at the moment it is impossible to persuade this government that it should regulate anything”. Bob Crow said: “The privateers’ pursuit of profit at the expense of our rail and bus industries is strangling both, and real environmental progress will not be made until the government recognises that rail franchising is an expensive failure. “Every penny of the £700 million that Stagecoach has handed to its shareholders has been taken from the pockets of passengers and taxpayers and every penny of it should have remained in the industry”. OILC ON BOARD Offshore Industry Liaison Committee (OILC) general secretary Jake Molloy gave a passionate speech to conference in support of plans to merge with RMT. Jake recalled how OILC was “created in a vacuum” in the wake of the deaths of 167 workers on the Piper Alpha oil platform in 1988. He said that the purpose of the new union was to “take on the oil giants” in the absence of any real militancy from the established unions, who had signed cosy partnership agreements with the employers. “We managed to achieve a lot, but at a cost,” said Jake, noting the sacking and blacklisting of over 400 OILC members. OILC became an independent trade union in 1991, and even without the support of the TUC had achieved a great deal, he said. “If it hadn’t been for OILC the health and safety gains made in the industry over the past 15 years would never have happened.” Jake argued that with the support of the RMT, the offshore workers could make even greater progress. He pointed out that there were still three or four deaths every year in the sector - there have been 12 in 2007 - and this needed to be addressed. He said that offshore workers are still fighting for decent holiday entitlement and the law still allows companies to summarily dismiss contracted staff. General secretary Bob Crow said that it made sense for all offshore workers to be in the same union. “RMT, like OILC, doesn’t believe in partnership agreements,” he added. REMEMBERING SLAVERY London Underground delegate Glenroy Watson called on the union to educate members about the horrific effects and legacy of the transatlantic slave trade. Glenroy said that modern society was still suffering the effects of the evil trade in human beings - “racism, bigotry and discrimination.” He called for a vigorous RMT campaign on the issue of reparations for slavery “to repair the relationship of Africans with society”. Glenroy noted that 100 years after the official abolition of slavery, Africa was still racked with poverty, despite being one of the most resource-rich continents on earth. “We are asking that we support this struggle - it is about unpaid wages; about the fact that we received lashes instead of wages,” he said. “There continues to be a failure to acknowledge the suffering of the African people and to acknowledge the racist policies directed against an entire people”. Camden delegate Peter O’Brien stressed that slavery still persisted, in different forms - such as sweated labour and people trafficking. RMTnews :: august/september 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 20 Glenroy Watson