PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: may 2011 :: RMTnews 9 I am very pleased to report I was present in Parliament to help defeat Tory MP Dominic Raab’s Ten Minute Rule Bill on April 26 which aimed to restrict the right of workers to take strike action. Given its status, the Bill had no hope of becoming law, but floated the prospect of further anti-trade union legislation. That’s why it was vital it was roundly defeated by 171 votes to 121. Under the terms of Raab’s Bill, a union in the transport or emergency services sectors would only be able to take strike action if it was supported by a majority of eligible voters, rather than the current simple majority of those voting. As RMT members know, Britain already has some of the most restrictive trade union legislation in the developed world. What’s needed is the repeal of this legislation, not further constraints on unions trying to defend their members. During his speech it was offensive to see Raab, on the one hand align himself with the cause of those famous strikes in British history; the match girls and at East London docks and then on the other castigate today’s workers for using their right to down tools. This man is the enemy of liberty. With inflammatory language, he described a Britain that few outside the Tory right would recognise: where the public is held hostage by “trade union bosses” who “bully the majority of union members into supporting strike action”, singling out RMT, PCS, Unite and BECTU. He gave himself away by saying “our law gives unions too much power” and had the temerity to pose the question “who is prepared to stand up for the hard-working majority in this Country?” as if the Tories have ever been the friend of working people. This Bill sought to clobber workers not bad employers. Trade union leaders don’t bully members into voting one way; members cast their votes in secret. Under his proposals, industrial relations would worsen because it would strengthen the position of anti-union employers. The bare-faced cheek and double standards of the man were astounding. He wants a law for unions requiring 50 per cent support before strike action can be taken, but this standard doesn’t apply elsewhere in public life, including Parliamentary elections. Raab didn’t win 50 per cent support from eligible voters in his Esher and Walton constituency (he polled 32,134 votes of 76,962 electors). Applying his own rule, he should not be allowed to sit in the House of Commons. As Bob Crow said of these Tories: “They want one law for the political class and another for the working class”. His proposals were a clear attack on trade union members and the human right of workers to take strike action as set out in the UN ILO Conventions. Particularly of course, it was an assault RMT members and industrial militancy. Raab and his ilk, including Tory Mayor Boris Johnston, can’t abide workers banding together in solidarity against their employers in the form of strike action and winning concessions as a result. At this critical time when the coalition government is ripping up our public services and welfare state, the ability of workers to be able to industrial action to defend their livelihoods and communities is essential. Ian Lavery MP for Wansbeck TORIES ATTACK THE RIGHT TO STRIKE R MT has condemned moves by publicly owned East Coast railway to export to India jobs currently done by staff at the National Express call centre in Newcastle. East Coast, in public hands following the serial collapse of franchises run by GNER and National Express, has given preferred-bidder status for customer-relations functions to Intelenet Global Services, which has operations in Plymouth and Mumbai, and to ATOS Origin, which operates in Wolverhampton. RMT called the decision a “bitter blow to the economy and communities of the northeast” which, if allowed by the government to stand, showed an “astonishing” lack of commitment to protecting jobs in the region. The union welcomed a parliamentary motion, EDM 1585 tabled by Gateshead MP Ian Mearns, which calls on ministers to intervene to reverse a decision that is “unacceptable” and which “demonstrates the failure of fragmentation and sub contracting in the rail industry”. The EDM said that the moves “demonstrates the failure of fragmentation and sub contracting in the rail industry; and calls for an urgent, industry wide assessment of the benefits to the passenger, taxpayer and economy of bringing all railway services in-house”. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was bad enough that the government wanted to re-privatise the East Coast Mainline when it has already collapsed twice in private hands, but it beggars belief that the government should even contemplate allowing these jobs to be exported. “These are core functions that should be done in-house, and this is another classic example of the failure of privatisation and a market-mad contract-culture that sees only profit and loss and never the damage it does to services and the lives of real people,” he said. MPS CALL ON EAST COAST TO STOP OUTSOURCING JOBS TO INDIA