ANTI-UNION LAWS HIT STRIKE ACTION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2011 :: RMTnews 6 STRIKE BAN: Docklands Light Railway operator Serco Docklands won an injunction to prevent 48-hour strike action from going ahead. RMT members at DLR voted overwhelmingly for strike action over failure to consult over redundancies, imposition of new pensions arrangements and rosters and the victimisation of members Julian Harper and Ian Peavot. The strike was deemed unlawful after the judge agreed with Serco Docklands’ lawyers that the notices were defective because some job titles and categories were incomplete. R MT has called off a strike by drivers at Arriva Trains Wales pending a legal challenge to a court decision banning strike action on Docklands Light Railway. Following legal advice on the changing nature of the anti- trade union laws, the 24-hour strike at Arriva Trains Wales was called off and members will be re-balloted. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that while the fight for pay justice for driver members on Arriva Trains Wales remained on the union had received further legal advice in respect of recent court judgments. “Nobody should be in any doubt about just how the noose of the anti-union laws has been tightened around workers’ necks and it’s the full weight of those undemocratic laws that has been brought in to play in this dispute. “It remains the case that ATW drivers are some of the worst paid in the country and that all they are fighting for is a comparable wage, a pay increase that protects their standards of living without strings, and working conditions that ensure a decent work/life balance,” he said. R MT train-cleaning crews, employed by the Mitie company and servicing First Great Western trains took 24 hour strike action earlier this month following a 100 per cent vote in a dispute over pensions, payment of wages and failure to make a realistic pay offer for 2010. Mitie, which recently announced a massive 12 per cent jump in profits, brands itself as an “outsourcing specialist” mopping up facilities contracts in both the private and public sectors. As a result of wage discrepancies members have been short-changed by hundreds of pounds, revealing just how these facilities companies operate and how they treat their low-paid staff. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the continued lack of pension contributions by Mitie was nothing short of a scandal. “Despite numerous promises made by Mitie to resolve the matter with urgency, there has been no resolution and as a result of these combined attacks on working conditions RMT members have returned a rock-solid mandate for action. “Mitie are using all sorts of disgraceful excuses to delay proceedings and have even taken to blaming the previous contractor (ISS) for not passing adequate information to them during the TUPE process. “RMT does not accept that and we will not sit back and allow management to treat our members with complete and utter contempt,” he said. R MT has slammed proposals from East Coast that would result in the slashing of on-train catering services along the prestige inter-city route. The move would leave only four trains a day on the national rail network, excluding the Scottish sleeper services, with a dedicated restaurant car, when British Rail provided 249. The union has warned that the East Coast cuts plans, code- named EUREKA, will put dozens of restaurant and chef jobs at risk and are seen by RMT as a blatant exercise in slashing quality of service to maximise profitability in advance of re- privatisation. RMT is seeking an urgent meeting with the company and is mobilising a political campaign in an all-out effort to slam the brakes on the cuts plans. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the mad dash to axe East Coast’s catering facilities from May in the run- up to re-privatisation shows that quality of service counts for nothing in the drive to fatten up profitability before the route is auctioned off again in the wake of two previous failures on this prestige service. “Those responsible for pushing forward with this planned carve-up should be ashamed of themselves. “It underscores RMT’s demand that this route be retained as a genuine public service and not merely a staging post before it is offered up as a cash-cow to the next bunch of opportunists and chancers in the private-sector queue. “RMT will fight these plans politically, publicly and industrially and we will not stand by while passengers are fleeced for top-dollar fares in return for a third-rate quality of service and while our members’ jobs are left in the balance,” he said. EAST COAST SLASHES CATERING SERVICES IN RUN UP TO RE-PRIVATISATION CARDIFF AND SWANSEA TRAIN CLEANERS’ STRIKE OVER WAGES AND PENSIONS ANTI-UNION LAWS HIT STRIKE ACTION