LETTERS

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: february 2010 :: RMTnews 27 SUPPORT BA WORKERS Dear Editor, I fully support attempts by BA cabin crew to protect their jobs and conditions and their planned action over Christmas even though this would have personally inconvenienced me. The recent decision by the High Court to ban strike action was not only a travesty of justice but the biggest threat to democracy since the Florida recount of 2000. Over 80 per cent of Unite members eligible took part in the secret ballot and 92.5 per cent of them voted for industrial action. Yet to have the ballot declared void and the strike illegal by an unelected High Court Judge that clearly harbours anti-union feelings is a disgrace and sets democracy in this country back 150 years. The governments' own findings after recent General Elections have found that there is still a problem with fraudulent voting in this country. As a result if the decision reached by Mrs Justice Cox is implemented, it stands to reason that all elections should be declared null and void. We live in a country where a Prime Minister can govern with his party getting less than 35 per cent of the popular vote and MEPs can be sent to represent this country in Europe with a 30 per cent electoral turnout but a democratic vote of over 90 per cent is thrown out by the courts. Mrs Justice Cox even questioned the timing of the strike, saying “a strike of this kind over the 12 days of Christmas is fundamentally more damaging to BA and the wider public than a strike taking place at almost any other time of the year”. This issue is not her decision to make, it is for the trade union concerned to decide when and where to strike. If the CWU had not announced a series of rolling strikes early on in the year, they would never have gotten an anti-union Royal Mail management back round the negotiating table. The latest legal decision against BA workers shows that the ruling class is back on the attack, effectively telling us that 'democracy only applies to the management and political classes, to hell with the workers'. Welcome back to the 1800s. Yours Sincerely, Scott Agnew. RMT Aberdeen Shipping branch chair PULLING TOGETHER Dear Editor, My friend and comrade Garry Hassell has just given me a copy of the RMT’s latest publication Pulling Together. It is beautifully produced, with smashing illustrations, wonderfully researched and written, that gives a clear history of the union and the way this relates to the major struggles of the labour movement and the important role played by all the unions that now constitute RMT. For me as union person that has been around for nearly five decades, it is the reading of events witnessed during that period presented so concisely that is a real delight. While it has every right to call itself A Popular History of RMT, do not be fooled, it is a scholarly piece of work and so easy to read that it will be of real benefit to all members and others both in and out of the labour movement. Yours fraternally Andy Durr CONGRATULATIONS Dear editor, I would like to thank everyone for their support in the recent election for RMT national president, I very much appreciate it. I would also like to wish Alex Gordon every success in representing our union both nationally and internationally as RMT president. Best regards, Derek England NAÏVE OVER NATIONALISATION Dear editor, As a local union representative working on the East Coast mainline I read with interest Linda Riordan MP's column in RMT News and agreed with her observations. However, as an ex-journalist I am always surprised by the naivety of politicians and union representatives who cannot understand why the government does not show any enthusiasm for re-nationalising the railways. The answer seems obvious to me. However dysfunctional the privatised rail network is, it remains from a government's point of view, one step removed from its doorstep and therefore one step removed from real, vote- threatening blame. No government is going to bring something in-house when it is clearly nervous about what the consequences might be in terms of tabloid headlines. However unpopular certain aspects of the system might be to the public, any criticism of the government is, at best, indirect and so not power-threatening. You only have to look at the debacle on the East Coast, with first GNER and then National Express, when it should have been the government that shouldered the majority of the blame not the companies. There were negative articles in the press but nothing that was ever going to shift things decisively in our favour. For any government to take seriously the idea of re-nationalisation both politicians and the public have to be educated about what the future model for the railways should be. The public must be told honestly how much it will cost, as well as how much it is costing them now, and the politicians must be persuaded the correct checks and measures will be put in place. This requires detailed, reasonable argument not sloganeering. If politicians from all sides cannot be persuaded that a nationalised network can be run efficiently without it being a party political football then we will never win what remains our biggest battle. Chris Morpeth Berwick letters