PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: october 2011 :: RMTnews 9 The rail unions commissioned interim report “Rebuilding Rail” launched at a packed fringe meeting at Labour Party conference attended by the Shadow Secretary of State for Transport, Maria Eagle MP, is very significant. Firstly, it will be an important contribution to the current Labour Party policy review and shows that public ownership of the railways could be a clear winner for Labour. Secondly, it shows that there is a clear alternative to the further privatisation, fragmentation and cuts agenda of McNulty. The Rebuilding Rail report found that taking the railways into public ownership would not only save £1.2 billion a year, exceeding the savings sought by McNulty’s cuts agenda, but also offers the prospect of practical benefits to passengers and the whole industry, such as an 18 per cent cut in fares and the revitalisation of rail freight and train manufacturing, to name but a few. Armed with this alternative I hope that as many RMT members as possible can attend the hugely important lobby of Parliament on October 25 to put pressure on their MPs to question the government over the threats the McNulty review pose to the future of jobs and services on the national rail network. If you have not made an appointment to see your MP don’t worry, you can still try and see them on the day. This is because every voter in the UK has the right to go to Central Lobby in Parliament and ‘Green Card’ their MP and it remains an essential expression of our democratic rights. All you need to do is fill out a Green Card with your name and address (so the MP knows that you live in their constituency). The Green Card will be put on the MPs message board and his or her Parliamentary office will be called to tell them that you are at Parliament and would like to speak to them. Your MP may be away from parliament on October 25 or otherwise engaged but if they choose not to come and meet you, the Green Card is a foot in the door which you should try to follow up on when you’re back home by calling their office and booking an appointment at the MP’s surgery or at another time. The October 25 lobby, hosted by the RMT Parliamentary group, is another example of how the group is a vital antidote to the murky and unregulated activities of PR companies that are paid millions of pounds to lobby Ministers and officials to adopt the pro-profit and anti-trade union ambitions of their wealthy clients. We need RMT members to Lobby their MPs and tell them that our rail system would be better off and better run in the public sector, not left as the ‘rich man’s toy’ Tory Transport Secretary Philip Hammond believes it to be. John McDonnell MP LOBBY YOUR MP ON OCTOBER 25 TO SAVE OUR RAILWAYS balloting processes, raising artificial thresholds added up to the most blatant attempt to twist the noose of the anti-union laws even tighter around our necks. RMT pointed out the hypocrisy of politicians, who would never subject themselves to the same distorted version of democracy they are trying to impose on the working class, demanding one set of balloting rules for their class and another for the working class. The motion was agreed unanimously. This year’s annual TUC conference held in London at Congress House was a stripped down event compressed into two-and-a-half days and with a fraction of the normal number of delegates. RMT had opposed the move to a new cycle of a small, London-based Congress alternating every two years with a full TUC away from London and with the usual representative delegations and high level of public and media interest. Mick Tosh Bombardier RMT rep Darren Barber