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RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: october 2008 :: RMTnews 14 RMT had a busy TUC this year, winning important debates and resolutions on trade union rights, privatisation, against the Lisbon Treaty and for more democracy at Congress itself. The union led the way with a successful motion calling for local trades councils to receive the right to submit a motion to Congress - in line with rights already enjoyed by the TUC's equality conferences. General secretary Bob Crow pointed out that this right was already in place at the Wales and Scottish TUC conferences. He said that trades councils’ voices should be heard at Congress because democracy and debate could only be improved by the addition of more voices of ordinary trade unionists, "rather than general secretaries talking to general secretaries." Opponents of the proposal claimed that it would allow trades councils, dominated by "white, middle-aged men" to circumvent their own unions and force their own agenda on to the order paper at Congress. Bob responded that this picture did not correspond to the trades councils he knew - and pointed out that it would be futile to try and circumvent union policy at the TUC because the single motion permitted at Congress would simply be voted down. FOR TRADE UNION RIGHTS RMT made a successful call for the repeal of the anti-union laws and the annulment of recent European Court of Justice rulings outlawing strike action. Delegates overwhelmingly backed a call for Europe-wide protests and a lobby of Parliament against these fundamental attacks on collective bargaining and the right to strike. The motion pointed out that the Lisbon Treaty would exacerbate attacks on trade union rights by handing the misnamed court huge new powers. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that recent ECJ rulings in the Viking, Laval, Ruffert and Luxembourg cases sought to turn the clock back by undermining trade union rights in various ways. "These ECJ rulings constitute a Taff Vale judgment for the 21st century. The supposed crime of the Associated Society of Railway Servants back in 1901 was to be "in restraint of trade" by calling strike action," he said. Bob warned delegates that if the discredited treaty was imposed trade union rights would be under further attack in the name of the 'free movement of goods, services and labour’ within the EU. Unison delegate Bob Oram also cited recent ECJ cases as one of the main reasons why Irish workers voted against the Lisbon Treaty. In 2005 Congress delegates voted overwhelmingly to oppose the EU constitution and, last year, Congress demanded a referendum on the renamed constitution the Lisbon Treaty. Bob warned that "unless we roll back these ECJ rulings we will be left defenceless against the EU's drive to liberalise markets and institutionalise social dumping. "That means stepping up the campaign for a Trade Union Freedom Act and working with unions across Europe to demand an end to anti-union ECJ rulings," he said. END PROFITEERING Angry trade unionists denounced new Labour for refusing to rein in the "obscene" greed of the energy privateers. Congress condemned the rapacious energy companies for raking in super-profits while the poor and elderly were forced to decide "between heating and eating" this winter. Delegates demanded a windfall tax on the privateers, as a prelude to ending the toothless "regulation" of Ofgem and restoring the utilities to public ownership. RMT president John Leach stressed that "public ownership of the utilities would be welcomed by working people and would allow the government the strategic control it needs to end fuel poverty". RENATIONALISE RAIL Congress backed a composite motion on rail transport which condemned the massive fare increases and called for a publicly-owned and accountable railway and far greater use to be made of rail freight Delegates from ASLEF and TSSA warned that this showed the utter failure of a privatised transport network, “where profit takes precedence over investment” and warned that the government's failure to address the underlying problems of ownership and fragmentation prevented rail from “fulfilling its full social, economic and environmental potential”. Congress called on the government to require train operating companies to make their cheapest advertised fares which more openly and easily available, as well as calling for an extension of free SETTING THE AGENDA AT TUC