NOW BRING TUBELINES BACK IN-HOUSE

RMTnews :: november 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 6 Demonstrate NO PRIVATISATION OF THE EAST LONDON LINE Thursday December 13 @ 11.00 am Outside City Hall Nearest Tube station - London Bridge Bring banners R MT has welcomed the news that Transport for London is the only formal bidder for failed Tube privateer Metronet and called for the Tubelines’ contracts to also be brought back into the public sector. The union also warned that it would be “unthinkable” to farm out any train maintenance to Bombardier, one of the privateer corporations responsible for the Metronet debacle. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was a relief that the administrator had abandoned attempts to prop up Metronet and pretend that there was some commercial life left in it. “We hope that we can start drawing a line under the disastrous PPP,” he said. As a result two-thirds of London Underground’s infrastructure work will be coming back under public control. However, a third of the network’s infrastructure remains in the hands of Tubelines, whose sole reason for existence is to take as much money as possible out of the industry. “We campaigned against the PPP from the start, and we will continue to campaign for a return of all Tube infrastructure work to the public sector and for TfL to reverse its wrong-headed decision to privatise the operations of the East London Line,” Bob said. R MT and the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee (DILC) have launched a name and shame campaign to fight the blacklisting of workers by oil and gas operators. The practice of NRB (Not Required Back) is used by employers to claim a worker is no longer able to work on an operator’s installations but no reason is given to the contractors. OILC general secretary Jake Molloy said that that practice was carried out with impunity as workers has virtually no means to challenge the actions of the operator. “The contracts between operators and contractors always include a clause allowing the operator to deny anyone access to their installations and for any reason,” he said. He said that contract workers had lived in fear of this practice for over thirty years. The two unions want this practice ended, particularly where the action is related to workers questioning health and safety matters. Both union accept stringent safety levels are required and unsafe personnel should be dealt with but NRB is “arbitrary, unaccountable and an opaque application of industrial relations gangsterism”. NOW BRING TUBELINES BACK IN-HOUSE NO TO BLACKLISTING