PRESIDENTS COLLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2014 :: RMTnews 29 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2014 :: RMTnews The big issue in the last month has obviously been the disputes with London Underground and Transport for London. In November myself and RMT regional organiser for London Underground John Leach and members of TSSA and Unite attended a meeting with the top LUL managers. Here they announced the closure of ALL ticket offices with the subsequent losses of 953 jobs. Obviously this was related to the on-going austerity cuts being made by the government. The crisis was not made by us, but we are certainly paying for it. There is no chance of the super- rich, who caused the financial disaster, paying for it. There is no way that the paymasters of the Tory or Liberal parties will allow that. However I am not convinced that this was the sole reason for announcing the closures and job losses. I genuinely think that there is more to come, further redundancies and further erosion of our members’ terms and conditions. We are relatively small union, but one that punches well above our weight. We are the favourite bogie men of the press and media. They know that we will fight back if they attack us, so obviously they have to beat us. If they beat us on the Underground, where we are very strong thanks to the steadfastness of our members, they would roll out the attacks on us throughout the industries we represent. This determination led to some of the most disgraceful attacks by the media on our union and, in particular on the general secretary, which I have ever seen in my life. I chaired a press conference where a lot of the media only wanted to talk about Bob’s holiday. This was despite my telling them not to and I want to put to some of the myths about that to bed. The general secretary is entitled to a holiday as he works hard enough and he booked it well in advance to celebrate his partner Nicky’s birthday. He had no idea that there would be a strike, how could he? There is also the fact that he didn’t need to be here. Our union is run by the members and they tell the executive committee what they want. They wanted a ballot for action, we gave it to them and they returned a mandate for action. The general secretary then informs the company under instruction from the executive. With modern technology, his presence was not essential. Now to the ballot itself. There was roughly a 40 per cent turnout, with roughly 70 per cent in favour. London mayor Boris Johnston went into meltdown over this but I don’t know how he has got the nerve. He was elected mayor on a 30 per cent turn out with just 17 per cent voting in favour of him. He and the government should look to their own results before they criticise us. Finally, I want to pay tribute to the members who took action. Despite the media onslaught, they held firm. I was on the picket line at Elephant and Castle and there was the usual good humour that you find. This was despite the freezing weather. One of the more interesting aspects of it was the reaction of the public. They, apart from one person, did not turn their anger on us they turned it on the management. I believe we won the propaganda war as the public were, in the main, on our side. A fine example of this was a young woman who came to head office and handed a bag of biscuits to Maria, one of the staff, in solidarity with us. We haven’t won yet, but well done to all who took action and all the staff who worked really hard in getting the information and propaganda out. RMT president Peter Pinkney FIGHTING BACK AND WINNING corruption in Kiev, inherited a country in economic crisis and failed to find a solution. Yanukovych fell because he tried to play Russia off against the European Union and failed. In 2007, Ukraine began negotiations over a Ukraine-EU Association Agreement (AA), a halfway house to EU integration. An alternative offer was to join a Customs Union with Russia and the former republics of Belarus and Kazakhstan. As the Konrad Adenauer Foundation noted that the EU conditions meant that Ukraine could not sign up for “formats that are contrary to the AA include any formation of customs unions, economic unions, or common markets”. The formerly pro-EU Yanukovych felt that he had been led down the garden path by being forced to accept austerity conditions which at the same time limited Ukraine’s room for manouevre with Russia. Meanwhile, Putin offered larger loans on better terms and with the sweetener of lower gas prices. "For three years in succession they [EU leaders] have shown this candy in pretty wrapping to us. We don't have to be humiliated like this. We are a serious country, a European one. When it corresponds to our interests, when we have agreed (with the EU) on normal conditions, (only) then can we consider signing”. Yanukovych said that Ukraine would need at least 20 billion Euros a year to upgrade the Ukrainian economy to compete on a level playing field with EU states. However, the EU offered to lend only £510 million, provided that Ukraine met the conditions of an IMF loan agreed in 2010. That loan had been suspended after the Ukrainian government refused to agree to further cuts, including fuel subsidies for households. Not surprisingly Yanukovych eventually opted for the Russian offer. Just a year ago, a British Foreign Office conducted a survey that lamented that there was no groundswell of support for the tilt toward the EU. “Despite the many benefits that the AA will bring to Ukraine and the generally positive connotations ‘Europe’ enjoys, support for the AA is not overwhelming amongst the population at large. There is no strong pro-AA lobby in Ukraine.” The report then asked for a budget of £1.9 million to manufacture one. Ukraine’s crisis is the result of the imposition of neoliberal policies combined with the EU and NATO’s economic and political rivalry with Russia. We can only hope the current crisis can be resolved quickly through negotiation and without further loss of life. COLLUSION: US Senator John McCain, right, and US Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, second right, met with far right Ukrainian opposition leaders, from left, leader of the German-backed UDAR party Vitali Klitschko, future pro-EU and homophobic ‘Prime Minister’ Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and the anti-semitic Sroboda party leader Oleh Tyahnybok in Kiev, Ukraine discussing the overthrow of the elected government before Christmas.