UNITY IS STRENGTH

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2013 :: RMTnews 17 Park calling on non-unionists to join the NUR. The first skirmish in railworkers’ battle for equality and democracy brought victory, but within months fresh attempts were made to restrict membership of NUR. In the summer of 1913 NUR general secretary Williams refused to enrol women railworkers. NUR Birmingham District Council appealed against his decision and delegates at the 1915 NUR Annual General Meeting in Nottingham voted 33-23 to overrule him. Women faced double discrimination of being enrolled as ‘temporary workers’ during wartime (in 1914 Old Oak Common and Kings Cross NUR branches called for women to be admitted as full members) as well as being paid only the minimum wage of male railworkers. In May 1915 London, Birmingham, Sheffield and Chesterfield NUR District Councils called for equal pay for women workers. The first woman officially admitted to the NUR on 2 July 1915 was Jennie Burden a 19- year old carriage cleaner joining Brighton No.3 branch. Mary Elizabeth ‘Mamie’ Thompson joined the NUR Ashton-under- Lyne No.1 branch in 1916 becoming the first woman NUR branch secretary and NUR Manchester District Council delegate. At its birth in February 1913 the new union enrolled over 180,000 members. By the end of that year membership grew 50% to 267,000 members as railworkers streamed into the new union. By 1920 the NUR grew to over 480,000 members. This stunning growth transformed the balance of power between railworkers and employers and led to victory for NUR and ASLE&F in the 9-day national rail strike against wage cuts from 27 September to 5 October 1919. Industrial unionism paved the way for national pay bargaining from 1914, national conditions of service from 1920 and finally for nationalisation of railways and transport undertakings in 1948 by Attlee’s post-war Labour government. RMT members can celebrate the great achievement of railway trade unionists in founding the NUR 100 years ago this month both because we are proud of our past and because we want a better future. Our continuing struggles today against poverty pay and exploitation by private rail firms and sub-contracting agencies remind us that the need for workers to fight through their unions for equality and democracy are as vital now as 100 years ago. RMT members who are interested in learning more about our remarkable history can obtain a free copy of ‘Unity is Strength: The National Union Of Railwaymen - 100 Years Of Industrial Unionism’ from Unity House, or RMT’s webshop. This work celebrates 100 years of the NUR - now the RMT - from its founding in 1913 and it is a little gem. Richly illustrated with trade union banners that embody pictorially the ideals of millions of participants in struggle, its 65 pages are packed with material that should encourage readers to look further into the events that shaped trade unions. Its author, former RMT president Alex Gordon, gives special attention to the three railway unions - Amalgamated Society of Railway Servants, General Railway Workers Union and United Signalmen's and Pointsmen's Union - which merged to form the first "industrial" union. Gordon's account begins at the turn of the last century, the beginning of arguably the most turbulent decade in trade union history. Between 1900 and 1909 working days lost to strike action numbered 2.5 million per year on average. Alongside this arose conflicts of ideas on how to best advance the causes of working people in fields such as workers' education, the relationship of the unions to politics and how the unions should be structured to give them the best chance of achieving their aims. The "politicised layer" of rail union activists came to industrial unionism greatly influenced by the advocates of syndicalism or workers' control. It was a position that Gordon says spread across the membership during a bitterly fought strike in August 1911 when, from a dispute sparked by the seafarers' union in the Port of Liverpool, 70,000 rail workers across Britain took unofficial strike action. The rail unions were calling for a 2 shillings a week pay rise and a cut in hours from 60 to 54 and, threatened with the call- out of the militia, declared a national rail strike on August 15. Around 200,000 rail workers took action with clashes with the army in several areas. In Llanelli, troops fired on strikers killing two. The government offered a Royal Commission on industrial relations and the union leaders called off the strike. Inevitably, the strikers' demands were not met, but Gordon comments that the strike showed the strength of transport workers acting together. There was increased class consciousness beyond the ranks of the "politicised layer" for industrial unionism and the demand for amalgamation of all rail unions grew. This led to the merger of three rail unions into the NUR which, though hailed as an industrial union, did not include the Aslef drivers who wanted a federative structure and the white-collar Railway Clerks union. Thus "industrial unionism," one presumes, has laid the basis of the thinking of the leadership and membership of the now RMT throughout its 100 years lifetime. That's captured vividly in Unity Is Strength, along with the tumultuous times since 1913 not least because the railways have been strategically important in many union disputes. This begs the questions of whether the RMT's "industrial unionism" approach has served it as well as those tens of unions merging or federating under different banners with different philosophies. Discuss. This review first appeared in the Morning Star newspaper UNITY IS STRENGTH Roy Jones reviews the new RMT pamphlet The National Union of Railwaymen - 100 Years Of Industrial Unionism