PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

I recently attended three conferences and it felt a bit like a farewell tour. I suppose that’s because it is. The first one in Llandudno was my own grade, the signallers’ conference. As usual, it was a very lively affair. There was a lot of debate about the future of the grade, PTR&R etc, especially with the grade about to be decimated in the next few years. But the subject which dominated was the four-year pay deal which has been offered by Network Rail. This has created a lot of debate at all levels and not just with signallers but also infrastructure activists. At recent meetings with reps at Unity House, the strategy was debated and they came out in favour of some sort of industrial action. At the signallers’ conference there was overwhelming support for industrial action. In my opinion that should be strike action. Action short of strike is difficult to police, but also, in my opinion, immoral. When there are people out of work, nobody should work overtime. In fact, overtime is the workers’ number one enemy. We should be fighting for better basic pay for all and filling vacancies so we can give future generations hope. At my first signallers’ conference in 1993 we called for strike action and got a massive turnout (well over 80 per cent) with a huge yes vote. It is up to all Network Rail workers to make sure that we have a repeat of this and show that enough is enough. The second event was the health and safety conference meeting in Doncaster. Again, there was a very large turnout. This conference has grown and grown over the years and is certainly one of the most popular. I never cease to be amazed at the ability and knowledge of our reps. They are at the forefront more than anyone else and they have to be extremely vigilant, especially with the cuts in the industry because of the relentless pursuit of profit. I laid a wreath at Tebay again this year and if there was ever a terrible example of what happens when you make cuts Tebay is it. We must always remember our comrades that died there and their families. My last engagement was the young members’ conference in the birthplace of trade unions as well as capitalism, Manchester. This conference has always meant a lot to me. I can still remember attending the first one in Plymouth as and EC representative. I was very pleasantly surprised to see not only a wide divergence of grades, companies and gender represented but the large amount of experience in the room. There were industrial reps, health and safety reps and several branch secretaries. This proves that our union, contrary to some opinions, is very active in organising with its’ young activists. In fact, they are pretty good at organising themselves! In fact, the theme of the two days, was all about organising themselves. National education officer Andy Gilchrist and Dave Marshall from the organising unit have to be congratulated for all the hard work that they put in helping the young members, especially as they are so busy with their ‘day jobs’. It was great to see old (not in age obviously) friends and to see how well that they are coming on including eople such as Chris Hodds, Peter Miller, George Waterhouse, Martin Mulligan, and Adrian Rowe. I see a great future for them within this union. There was also a welcome amount of new delegates, and I am sure that they will have a great future too. Finally, I want to pay a special tribute to the outgoing conference president Rosie Kirk and thank her for all the effort and hard work that she has put in over the last year, thanks junior. Peter Pinkney CONFERENCE SEASON President’s column RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2015 :: RMTnews 21 TOC employers are already testing the water to see if they can reach some form of generic agreement which could be used across TOCs to recoup their 3.4 per cent NIC rebate. These discussions have been taking place through the Informal Pensions Working Group which is made up of TOC employers and rail unions. The additional payroll costs resulting from the ending of contracting out will be in the region of £49 million per annum. Therefore management has tabled a number of possible options which could be used to mitigate this additional cost. These proposals include changing accrual rates, aligning the normal retirement age of the RPS with the state pension age (60 to 68) and changing early retirement reduction factors. What is particularly disturbing about this approach from management is that like Network Rail section many of the TOC pension schemes are also well funded. While the TOCs would like some form of agreement by 2016, neither RMT nor our sister unions are in a position to agree to any of the proposals already made. The increase in NICs is taxation by stealth. While the government claims that individuals of contracted-out pension schemes will be compensated by a larger state pension it is these very members who will be funding this policy at the expense of increased NICs and reduced future occupational benefits. What the government is clearly doing is ‘robbing Peter to pay for Paul’ at the expense of workers’ pensions. Rail unions recently met to discuss a joint strategy to protect our members' future pension rights. While RMT is more than aware that employers may use the Trustee Consent Override route to force through their proposals, the union is also conscious that members need protecting from this piece of nasty government legislation which threatens the value of workers’ occupational pensions.