PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: november/december 2008 :: RMTnews 9 Parliamentary column As the RMT news goes to press the government’s Local Transport Bill will have received Royal Assent. There are some positives in the Act such as a new requirement for local authorities to factor in the effect of greenhouse emissions into their local transport plans. The Act will also make it easier for local authorities to set up Passenger Transport Authorities, now be to be called Integrated Transport Authorities, in areas where they do not already exist. For example there are no such transport authorities in the South West and their establishment could greatly assist in the development of integrated transport networks. RMT members know that the real answer to poor local transport would be for government to legislate to ensure bus services could be taken back into municipal ownership but the Act does not go that far and, therefore, has to be seen as a missed opportunity. Public ownership would give much greater financial control and strategic direction, which is desperately needed at this time. The Act will, however, give local authorities powers to do away with the deregulated free for all of current bus service provision and instead regulate bus services through the introduction of franchised services know as Quality Contracts. This is fine as far as it goes but what was missing from the Bill when it started in the Lords back in the Autumn of 2007 was any provision to protect bus workers jobs and conditions in the event that a local authority decides to introduce such a contract. With others, I tabled a parliamentary motion to highlight this problem. Working with the union and other colleagues in the RMT Parliamentary group and in the Lords, we secured substantial amendments to the Bill, including the introduction of TUPE provisions and full pension protection for bus workers who are transfered to a Quality Contract. The RMT Parliamentary group has also had to respond to the decision by the ORR to allocate £2.4 billion less funding than Network Rail said it needed. This means that important planned capacity enhancements will be shelved such as the redoubling of the Swindon to Kemble line which would have significantly improved rail access to Gloucester, Cheltenham and Stroud. The settlement will also place more pressure on the jobs and conditions of hard pressed Network Rail employees by demanding twenty one per cent efficiency savings over the next five years on top of the thirty one per cent efficiency savings which rail workers have already helped to achieve. There is also no doubt that the recession will place a squeeze on the whole system of railway franchising. For example those companies, such as First Great Western, who are relying on a year on year increases in passenger numbers to fund their premium payments to the Government, will find themselves under severe pressure. Instead of making cuts, the government should be mitigating the effects of the recession by extending public ownership to the railways and bringing forward large scale capital investment such as electrification and high speed rail. The Parliamentary group is to shortly meet new Transport Secretary Geoff Hoon and it will be pressing for this agenda. David Drew MP for Stroud PROTECTING BUS WORKERS L ast month Gordon Brown suffered his biggest rebellion in the Commons when 45 Labour MPs voted for a key clause taken from the Trade Union Rights and Freedoms Bill. In advance of the debate, RMT supported the United Campaign to Repeal the Anti Trade Union Laws lobby of MPs to ensure that the Bill was amended to reflect three key clauses from the trade union freedom bill, namely better protection for striking workers, preventing the use of replacement labour during strikes and a duty on employers to cooperate with unions in providing information for industrial action ballots. RMT wrote to MPs urging support for the amendments and encouraged members to send campaign postcards to their parliamentary representatives. RMT regional organiser Phil McGarry was also part of a Scottish TUC delegation that had lobbied Employment Relations Minister Pat McFadden to urge improved trade union rights. MPs had signed up to the three trade union freedom bill amendments tabled by RMT Parliamentary convener John McDonnell. MPs also signed up to an amendment tabled by Tony Lloyd and supported by Searchlight which would have given unions the right to expel fascists from their membership. Despite constant pressing from MPs, the Employment Relations Minister refused to offer even a consultation to address the weaknesses in the law. A vote was forced on the amendment imposing a duty on employers in relation to industrial action ballots. Forty five labour MPs voted in favor of the amendment: The Minister also refused to give any ground on Tony Lloyd's amendment although this amendment was not put to the vote. The government had to rely on Tory support and the government payroll vote to ensure the amendments were defeated. The media also said that a number of Labour MPs who had pledged to rebel were absent, campaigning in the Glenrothes by- election, making the size of the rebellion all the more surprising. The fight for trade union freedom continues and full report including a video of the debate and how you can join the campaign for trade union freedom can be found at www.unitedcampaign.org.uk BIG TRADE UNION FREEDOM REBELLION