BUS WORKERS FIGHT BACK

14 RMT bus workers renewed their resolve to fight to defend jobs, pay, pensions and conditions at their annual conference, held in the north Devon resort of Croyde last month. It was a watershed conference, said Paul Dyer of host branch North Devon, at a time when the movement and working people were facing massive attacks from a government of millionaires. It was a key strength that RMT was “one union, regardless of sector or grade”, and “the best fighting union in the country”, said Paul. The big-five bus operators were attempting to maintain profitability by making staff shoulder the burden of massive cuts in local government and government bus subsidy, said southwest organiser Phil Bialyk. “The bus industry is under attack, but don’t swallow that we’re all in this together, because if I was earning a million, I’d be £40,000 a year better off - while the government is penalising the low-paid, and cutting benefits and services.” The union had made strides towards a single rate of pay and a single set of conditions with First Group, but now the employers were going on the offensive. “They want your paid breaks, your sick-pay schemes and your jobs, but RMT isn’t there to negotiate exit terms, but to protect jobs, pay and conditions,” said Phil The response should be to aim at 100 per cent organisation in every depot, said Phil, who had a word of advice for reps: “don’t have a kettle in the union office — take your break in the canteen, because that’s where you’ll find out what your members are worried about.” A nationalised bus industry was the union’s aim, but ‘quality contract’ franchises would be better than the free- for-all that existed, and the union had lobbied MPs alongside sister unions to put a brake on the shameless siphoning of public money, said Phil. Delegates railed against the use by the big bus operators of low-cost subsidiaries in order to drive down pay and conditions. The Go-Ahead group was using it cynically as a strategy aimed ultimately at picking apart negotiated terms and conditions, said Jim Ide, Poole and District, and, if unchecked, could lead to bad feeling and division. The union was wise to the ploy, but if not challenged now it would fester and the chance to fight it must be grasped now, added Mark Gale, Poole and District. MASSIVE ATTACK A massive squeeze on unions and attacks on workers’ legal rights by the “rotten” ConDem government were outlined by general secretary Bob Crow. Changes to industrial tribunals had already imposed, with workers now unprotected by the law for two years, the imposition of prohibitive new tribunal fees and the doubling of costs if you lose. Tribunals would no longer have to be balanced with three members, there would be no more witness expenses, and if the union continued to take the same number of cases, it would cost close to £1 million a year. Attacks on time-off for union reps also presented a potentially “colossal” cost to the union said Bob. But the response had to be to build the union and nurture a new generation of activists: “It is people that hold the union together — you are the union,” said Bob. Looking outward, the union had doubled its investment in reps’ education, expanding the Doncaster education centre at a time when most unions had long closed theirs. The massive attacks on jobs, public services and benefits should have had opposition MPs jumping up and down in anger, but the bulk of the political mainstream supported privatisation, cuts, illegal wars and anti-union laws. “People won’t just vote Labour because they hate the Tories and LibDems — we are at the same crossroads we were at 107 years ago when we broke with the Liberals,” said Bob. There were growing signs that people were rejecting austerity, and RMT had to place itself firmly with that resistance. “We must stand for social justice and fight to change BUS WORKERS FIGHT BACK The need to stand up and fight to defend bus industry jobs, pay, pensions and conditions was the rallying call from the RMT bus workers’ conference