DEFENDING RAIL JOBS, PAY AND CONDITIONS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2022 :: RMTnews 8 As you can see by this edition of RMT News the union is asking the majority of our membership to vote in the upcoming ballot for industrial action. Your union’s national executive committee has not instructed me to take this course of action lightly, but it has become clear that the government is determined to cut costs in the rail sector and attacking wages, jobs and conditions is the way they are going to do it. Moreover, the cost-of-living crisis has worsened with record inflation, energy prices and a looming National Insurance hike which has increased demands for the union to take action on pay. Conversely the rail industry is under pressure to make savings of hundreds of millions in staff costs. It appears that initial attempts to remove staff through voluntary severance has not had the desired impact and there are widespread reports of savings being made by not filling vacancies. On top of this, the workplace reform agenda has only recently begun to materialise, but only with Network Rail who are now presenting detailed proposals for savings and making clear pay increases and guarantees on job security will have to be linked to those savings. At a recent meeting with the rail minister and the rail unions the Minister said that following government support during Covid there was now no more money for the railways and the workforce had to make savings. The Minister said that the unions were free to continue with collective bargaining but the train operating companies at the meeting contradicted this by saying that they had not finalised their annual business plans with Department of Transport. Tellingly, at least three of the civil servants present at the meeting were described as officers dealing with railway industrial relations. Independent reports are already predicting that RPI inflation could be as high as 10 per cent this month. Higher inflation may also lead to higher interests’ rates which would impact on Network Rail’s substantial debt and repayment costs. The government will also support the train operating companies in resisting any meaningful pay rises. The union can either stand aside and suffer death by a thousand cuts or stand and fight. Now is the time to stand up to this government and the employers and tell them that workers are not prepared to bear the brunt of this growing economic crisis and the fallout from the Covid pandemic. By voting Yes in any ballot you will be sending a strong message that this union will not tolerate the decimation of the industry and such blatant attacks on its workers. DEFENDING RAIL JOBS, PAY AND CONDITIONS A message from RMT general secretary Mick Lynch on why rail workers should vote yes to industrial action Conductors on Transpennine Express services continue strike action as reports indicated that FirstGroup will be awarded an eight-year extension to their National Rail Contract by the government. Last month the government published a Prior Information Notice indicating that it intends to make an eight year award to run Transpennine Express companies when FirstGroup’s current contract expires in April 2023. Under the terms of its new National Contract, the winning company will be expected to push through ‘workforce reform’, thin coding for attacks on staff numbers and terms and conditions. The new National Contracts also require the companies to agree ‘dispute handling plans’ with the Secretary of State. The new National Contracts also guarantee risk-free profits to the companies involved and if reports that FirstGroup have been awarded the eight-year contract are true it raises the prospect that the company will suck around £40 million in dividends out of the franchise over the period of the award.  RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that if these reports were true, FirstGroup will be laughing all the way to the bank at passengers’ expense, safe in the knowledge that the government has got its back, guaranteeing profits and provoking and bankrolling a series of totally unnecessary industrial disputes. “This is not enterprise, it’s state-sponsored looting at the expense of heroic keyworkers and the region’s passengers. We don’t want 8 years of disputes, but RMT members won’t sit back and let these corporate spivs and their government backers torch their terms and conditions to fund their greed,” he said.  As RMT revealed recently, FirstGroup has already paid out dividends worth £30 million in the last year from its rail operations and is awaiting the Secretary of State’s permission to pay out £33 million more. FURTHER STRIKES AT TRANSPENNINE EXPRESS FirstGroup to be given an eight-year contract to attack staff