Greg Tucker, RMT Train Crew conference secretary (in a personal capacity) IN THE LAST ISSUE of Resistance it was reported that confidence was high amongst train crew. After three days of strikes they wanted to keep up the pressure on the train operating companies in the fight for rail safety. It was not to be - faced with exaggerated reports of a "return to work" movement, the dispute has been halted by the RMT Executive. Reading other parts of the left press it seems that some people have fallen for the line from the union's leadership that guards won significant concessions in our dispute over safety. Unfortunately our strikes were called off despite the fact that no real concessions had been made. Having marched us to the top of the hill, we have been marched down again, again! Greg Tucker Our dispute is about the serious watering down of the safety role of the guard. In 1999 the union leadership backed down when the railway rules were changed. It took an appeal to the RMT AGM to get the dispute reinstatnew safety proposals, which have been independently assessed twice and shown to be better than current practice. last year, the Rail Standards and Safety Board (RSSB) refused to implement our rule changes. be examined by the RSSB yet again. still no guarantee that the RSSB will adopt the proposals. ed is that they will not oppose the decision of the RSSB, whatever it is. As they have often told the RMT, they in any case. The "significant concession" the union leadership claims is that if the
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Since then the union has put forward
change. Thanks a lot!
But breaking guarantees they gave
Now GNER have formally presented the RMT proposals, which will have to Despite calling off the dispute there is
All the train companies have conced are bound in law to accept the results RSSB accepts our line we will be able action. to take part in drawing up the detailed wording of any official railway rule The truth is that the RMT Executive panicked after officials exaggerated a "return to work" movement. Rather than deal with this by persuading the small minority of wavering members to stand firm, they have claimed a victory in order to cover up their own weakness. Significantly, on the Executive three train crew members did not support this cop-out. If the RSSB does not accept our proposals, we will now have to start over again the long process of mobilising our members, through ballots etc. The RMT Executive has once again thrown away the momentum we had built up. Train crew are confident that we can defeat the train companies on this issue - as long as our union leadership doesn't keep undermining our YET ANOTHER Blairite has bitten the dust. Current Communication Workers Union Deputy General Secretary (Postal) John Keggie was beaten in elections declared at the end of May by challenger Dave Ward. Ward, whose main distinction is not being the incumbent, received 19,404 votes to Keggie's 16,814 on a 20 per cent turn out
Keggie has been trying to sell management restructuring plans, which will result in job losses and worsening conditions. Ward is actually part of the same negotiating team, though he used his election mate rial to say that the union needed a change
The NEC elections across the union saw no overall changes in the balance between left and right. On the Telecom side, Broad Left supporter Gary Heather won, but John East, from whom the Broad Left had withdrawn support after he had been key to advocating a vicious productivity scheme, was also re-elected