BOB CROW ADDRESSES CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AS PART OF NO2EU CAMPAIGN

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: may 2009 :: RMTnews R MT called on the government to take urgent action to renationalise the East-Coast Line. This followed reports this month suggesting that the franchise holder, National Express, is looking to bail out of their current contract in favour of a fixed-fee management deal. The franchise was awarded to National Express just over two years ago with the company promising to pay nearly £2 billion in premiums back to the government over eight years. National Express are now claiming that the recession has hit their profits. They are reported to have agreed an outline deal with the government which would get them out of their franchise obligations and give them the copper- bottomed financial guarantee of a fixed- fee management arrangement. The East-Coast Line, which links London with Edinburgh via York and Leeds, carries 17 million passengers a year and employs 3,100 staff. RMT general secretary, Bob Crow, said that if reports of the collapse of the East- Coast franchise are true, it gives the government a golden opportunity to renationalise the service. “Rather than plugging in the life support machine for National Express, ministers should be seizing the chance to return this big section of the rail network to full public ownership and control. RMT has no time for private companies who promised the earth when they took on these franchises and who are now going cap in hand to the government, pleading poverty. They saw the railways as a fast route to an easy profit at the taxpayers’ expense and now is the time to get shot of them,” Bob Crow said. RMT CALLS FOR RENATIONALISATION OF EAST COAST LINE T he convenor of the No2EU – Yes to Democracy European election platform, RMT general secretary Bob Crow, joined with a thousand construction workers on the gates of the Olympic site in Stratford earlier this month in a mass protest over attacks on pay and working conditions. The protest on May 6 was called by rank and file construction workers in opposition to a ‘race to the bottom’ on pay and conditions and the exploitation of overseas workers to drive down wages. It was joined by workers from all over the country including a contingent from the protests at the Lyndsey oil refinery. Addressing the mass picket Bob Crow said that anger should be directed at managers who exploit migrant workers to undercut union agreements. “These people are not the problem – the bosses who want construction workers to compete in a race to the bottom and force their pay and conditions down are the problem,” he said. The construction workers later held a rally outside of Parliament which was also addressed by Bob Crow. Leaders of the Olympics protest, along with convenors from the Visteon dispute and Lyndsey oil refinery, are standing as No2EU-Yes to Democracy candidates on June 4. BOB CROW ADDRESSES CONSTRUCTION WORKERS AS PART OF No2EU CAMPAIGN 9