ORGANISING ENGINEERING WORKERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2022 :: RMTnews 12 Railway engineering workers meeting in Cardiff last month vowed an almighty battle with Network Rail over pay and opposing compulsory redundancies, at the maintenance grade conference in Cardiff in March. Delegates from across the country debated the key issue which will put the union on a collision course with Network Rail and 14 train operating companies as early as May this year. If strike action is agreed, it will the biggest show of industrial strength by RMT in its history. The union has four key demands which are: - A pay increase for members - No compulsory redundancies - No detrimental changes to terms and conditions - No detrimental changes to pensions Tabling an emergency motion, the Wakefield and Healey Mills branch was "disgusted to learn" that "from the very beginning of the pandemic, Network Rail had set up a group of senior managers to begin drawing up plans to butcher terms and conditions and slash pay. Whilst this was done in secret, publicly, Network Rail praised us". Singling out Network Rail in particular, the motion added: "This is a company that brazenly seeks to capitalise on the pandemic by using this as a pretext for imposing all the ideas that this trade union have been strong enough to resist over successive pay talks. "It is the view of this conference that now is not the time to even contemplate taking a single backward step and that we should mount the biggest fight of our generation to show that we will not tolerate this blatant opportunism". Addressing conference assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey told delegates that as the transport industry emerged from the pandemic, the government and railway employers were seeking to "take on this trade union". "It's not about recovering from the pandemic but bringing in old schemes that have been knocking around in the railways for many decades. "They have the wind in their sails because they have a government backing them. "It is about attacking our terms and conditions but also to attack this union's ability to have an industrial strength which means we are able to deliver high wages, good conditions and protections,” he said. Mr Dempsey explained how government ministers want to strip £2 billion out of railway industry by April 2023 and £1 billion had already been removed by stealth, he insisted. "For the past 10 years the government has been gradually weaning the railway network off subsidy and towards ticket sales as the primary funder for the network. "The private companies are still getting their money out of the public purse but what they are trying to do is make sure the operation budgets in the railways are delivered through ticket sales with falling passenger footfalls. So, they are already trying to cut in that way," he said. He explained that the government allowed Network ORGANISING ENGINEERING WORKERS RMT’s industrial organising conference of engineering grades discuss the fight for pay and jobs