FIGHTING FOR RESPECT AT TRANSPORT FOR LONDON

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: september 2009 :: RMTnews 12 Transport for London branch chair Paul Rutland said that people working at TfL join RMT because it’s a fighting union. “They join because they want to be in it,” he says. The success of RMT recruitment among TfL workers is down to the hard work of the branch activists who are dispersed across numerous workplaces and TfL subsidiaries. There can be no doubt that they are organising on difficult terrain. A non-exhaustive list of where branch members come from includes: London Transport Museum, Lost Property, Human Resources, Revenue Protection, Traffic Enforcement, Public Carriage Office, Oyster Card, Facilities and Health and Safety. TfL was created in 2000 as the integrated body responsible for the capital’s transport system, ostensibly implementing the transport strategy for which the Mayor of London has responsibility. There are four RMT reps within TfL, although the company refuses to officially recognise them all. With no centralised workplace and, as a result, nowhere to pin up notices of branch meetings, organising is done by email and text messages. Even that has been made difficult by management, who have barred the use of the TfL email system for RMT purposes. Reps have also reported being bullied. The diverse nature of TfL jobs and their workplaces may be a real challenge to organising and recruiting but that makes for a high calibre of recruit. “People who join tend to be as strong, fighting people. Membership hasn’t been handed to them on a plate, they have had to seek us out, or we have had to seek them out,” says Lindsey Rutland, the branch’s vice secretary. In June TfL members came out on strike alongside LUL members in a dispute over rates of pay, conditions of service and redundancies. With regard to redundancies, TfL wouldn’t reveal which jobs are to be cut as part of £2.4 billion worth of cuts. To make matters worse, it appeared that they hadn’t even factored in the loss of revenue due to income dropping or the lost funds from the ending of the western congestion charge zone. Carol Foster, the branch’s women’s officer, says that “everybody thought that we would be moderate and therefore they were really shocked when we came out on strike. “We may do different jobs from operative staff, but the issues and the type of management we face are just the same and it doesn’t matter what type of work you do, all we want is respect,” she said. FIGHTING FOR RESPECT AT TRANSPORT FOR LONDON RMT News talks to members of the Transport for London(TfL) branch about the problems of organising a diverse workforce into the union RESPECT: Paul Rutland and Lindsey Rutland on the picket line in June.