Top union official to stand for the Greens in Redcar

The President of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) Union is to stand for the Green Party at this year’s general election. Peter Pinkney, whose union represents more than 80,000 workers across Britain, will stand for the Green Party in Redcar, a constituency won by the Liberal Democrats at the last election. 

It is the first time that the Green Party has stood in the north eastern constituency and follows recent turmoil in the local Labour party which saw the resignation of ten councillors just 4 days ago. And the north east Labour party as "North Korea Labour"

Commenting Peter Pinkney said: "I spoke at the Green Party Conference in 2013, and I was impressed with the ideas that were being put forward. The ideas of the Greens resonated with a lot of my beliefs. Obviously the Greens commitment to bring railways back into public hands struck a chord, but also policies to invest in the NHS, build social housing, institute higher taxes for those who can afford it, and put forward progressive policies on immigration informed my decision to stand."

"As a life long socialist, I could see that most of the policies were what the Labour Party once had, but those days are long gone with Labour." Mr Pinkney added.

Pinkney was elected as RMT President in December 2012 for a three year term. He spends much of his time in London working for the union but his home is in the Redcar constituency. Though the Greens have not stood in Redcar before they expect to make an impact amid Lib Dem collapse and the splitting of the local Labour Party.

Also commenting the Green Party Leader, Natalie Bennett, said: "We’re delighted to announce Peter as our candidate in Redcar. Voters there, like their counterparts across the UK, are sick and tired of the business as usual politics offered by the establishment parties. We’re giving them a chance to vote for someone who will defend our NHS, campaign for publically owned railways and push for decent affordable housing for everyone who needs it."

Transport for London staff join July 10th strike action

RMT members at Transport for London will be taking a further 24 hours of joint strike action from this Thursday morning, coinciding with widespread national industrial action in the public sector, in a dispute over what the Unions are calling an all-out attack on pay and pensions that would condemn to staff to a life of poverty in retirement. Members have been instructed not to book on for any shifts that commence between:-

• 05.59 hours Thursday 10th July 2014 and 05.58 hours Friday 11th July 2014.

The action is in protest at TFL’s plans to impose their “Pay for Performance” proposals
Over the last six months TFL have point-blank refused to engage in serious negotiations over their plans for what amount to a performance-related pay freeze and savage cuts to pension rights.  The 'savage attacks'  that TFL are looking to bulldoze through would mean:

• Pay rises will be one off lump sums and would not count towards pensionable pay with final salary pensions reduced. 
• An immediate pay freeze over the next five years for at least 50% of staff
• The annual pay award would be placed at the discretion of managers and no longer fully negotiated with the recognised trade unions
• Any pay rises would be determined by punitive and discriminatory “individual performance” processes which we believe will leave staff at the risk of bullying and harassment.

The impetus behind management’s proposals is purely and simply cash-led cuts, a situation that will become worse over the forthcoming years as there are further reductions in TFL’s grant and the expectation that further assaults on jobs, pay and pensions are being lined up for the future.

RMT acting general secretary Mick Cash said: “The current TFL pension proposals are nothing less than a concerted attack on terms and conditions and would have a major effect on the future of the entire TfL Pension Fund. TfL have refused to budge on this important issue despite the staffs clear rejection of their proposals. The unions have demanded that TFL immediately withdraw the toxic “Pay For Performance” plans and get back round the table but our concerns have been ignored and that is why further strike action is back on.”

“This attack on TFL pay and pensions has to be seen in the wider context of Government austerity cuts to TFL’s funding and once again it is the staff who are being lined up to take a hit that would not only whack them in the pocket now but would condemn them to lives of poverty in retirement. That message will be rammed home across the public sector in the widespread action on Thursday."

“TFL should be in no doubt of about our members determination to defend pay and pensions after the rock solid support for the last waves of joint action with our sister TFL unions and they should listening to our case, withdrawing the current plans and talking seriously about pay and pensions plans that protect and enhance the living standards of TFL staff members."

Tube strike is an unnecessary strike that will hit ordinary Londoners hardest say the London Lib Dems

Caroline Pidgeon AM, leader of the Liberal Democrat London Assembly Group and transport spokesperson, commenting on the news that a 48-hour Tube strike will now almost certainly go ahead from 21.00 after talks broke down between London Underground and the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union said:

“This is a totally unnecessary strike which will have devastating impact for London’s economy and create the greatest disruption for ordinary Londoners, such as teachers and nurses. The cause of this strike is a dubious mix of poor leadership by London Underground management and a leadership battle within the RMT positioning for strike action."

Continuing Ms Pidgeon commented: “Greater use of technology must be adopted at Tube stations and getting some staff out from quiet ticket offices makes sense, but it is simply wrong to consider ending ticket offices at such busy stations as Waterloo and London Bridge."

Concluding Carolone Pidgeon said: “Londoners also need an absolute assurance from TfL that stations will be fully staffed from first train in the morning right through to the very last train at night. On Tuesday and Wednesday Londoners will pay a heavy price for poor leadership by London Underground and a stubborn determination by the RMT to strike and not negotiate."

East Midlands Trains cancels all services to Liverpool today as RMT industrial action bites

East Midlands Trains have been forced to cancel all of their services to Liverpool today and are restricting other services across the weekend as industrial action by RMT members in a long-running dispute over a breakdown in industrial relations hits home. Following a massive “yes” vote in an RMT ballot for industrial action in response to a comprehensive breakdown in industrial relations between East Midlands Trains and the union, RMT began a programme of measures last Saturday:

• 1. Not to work any overtime
• 2. Not to work any rest days
• 3. Not to perform any additional duties outside your job description and terms and conditions of employment
• 4. When rostered on spare turns only to work turns or duties within the parameters laid down in your terms and conditions of employment.
• 5. Only to work agreed rostered hours and rostered turns of duty only.

RMT has a number of issues unresolved, and with the company refusing to engage the union in meaningful talks there was no option but to ballot. The issues are:

• Management’s intransigent approach to the Nottingham Engineering Blockade, representing a total failure to consult with the union over works which are not, as claimed, an emergency situation but in fact a long time planned engineering project.
• The unilateral ripping-up of procedural agreements by East Midlands Trains.
• The unilateral ripping-up of agreed conditions of service agreements and the attempted imposition of rosters without negotiation.
• The continued intimidation, bullying and harassment of RMT member in clear breach of the company’s policies.
• Victimisation of RMT representative Sister Ruth Strong.

Despite the efforts of RMT representatives to tackle these matters through the machinery of negotiation, they remain unresolved. The company has taken a deliberately aggressive attitude and is not showing any signs that progress can be made through the normal channels, forcing the union to take action.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: "East Midlands trains said the RMT action would have no impact and yet here they are scrapping entire services this weekend as the action hits home. They should stop misleading passengers and start talking with the union about the measures needed to resolve this dispute. “The industrial relations climate on East Midlands has sunk to a new low with the company attempting to bulldoze through changes off the back of an engineering blockade which has been planned over the long term and is now being dressed up as a bogus emergency to try and justify ignoring procedures and ripping up working agreements. “There is also a culture of bullying, harassment and victimisation that RMT will not allow to continue. The union remains available for talks aimed at securing agreement but the company should be in no doubt as to the level of anger that their actions have generated amongst RMT members.”

Protests confirmed across country to keep East Coast Mainline in public hands

The RMT have said today that they will be holding protests between 8am and 9am this Thursday (18th July) the length of the East Coast Mainline as the fight to keep the route in public hands steps up a gear. In 2009 National Express handed back the franchise for the East Coast Mainline (ECML) to the government, abandoning the contract in a disgraceful negation of their operator's responsibility, causing huge uncertainty and disruption. It was the second private sector failure on key the key route, following the earlier collapse of GNER.

Since National Express threw the keys back, public ownership (in the form of Directly Operated Railways Ltd) has provided an improved service and vastly more revenue for the Treasury. According to answers to questions tabled by the RMT Parliamentary Group, Directly Operated Railways Ltd has (since November 2009) paid £602m in premium payments. This is £232m more than National Express paid back during its tenure and over £209m more than the amount paid in by Virgin/Stagecoach on the West Coast Mainline since 2009-10.

And ECML in the public sector is virtually subsidy free. Public subsidy accounted for only 1.2% of ECML's total income in 2011-12, compared to an average of 32.1% of the income of the private trai operating companies on the 15 other passenger rail franchises. Despite this, the Conservative-led government is "ideologically wedded" to returning ECML to the private sector and are preparing to bulldoze through a re-privatisation of the line before the next election, with a third expensive and reckless gamble at the tax payers expense.

As part of the fight to stop the Government plans, on Thursday 18th July RMT is holding a Day of Action to press for East Coast to be kept in the public sector. Between 8 and 9am there will be demos and leafleting at Kings Cross, Doncaster; Leeds, Wakefield, Newcastle, Berwick, Edinburgh Waverley

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: "The truth is that out of pure ideology, this government is prepared to take a third gamble on their big-business friends in a desperate bid to privatise the East Coast Mainline before the election, even though they are well aware that the whole reckless exercise will cost the British public hundreds of millions of pounds in lost income. RMT's research shows that the money currently being reinvested by publicly-owned DOR will go straight into the back pockets of whatever bunch of chancers are given the chance to plunder the East Coast after the previous two private collapses left the public sector to pick up the pieces. On Thursday we will take our case to the East Coast passengers and RMT will continue to fight not only to keep the East Coast in public ownership but to renationalise the entire network, ending the great rail rip-off once and for all."

Natalie Bennett, Green Party leader, said: "I'll be joining the RMT protest at King's Cross station on Thursday morning to show my support for its campaign to keep the East Coast mainline in public hands. The Directly Owned Railways now operating the East Coast mainline receives less subsidy than any other rail operator, getting just one per cent of its spending paid for by the taxpayer, compared to 13 per cent for Virgin's West Coast franchise, and up to 36 per cent elsewhere. The government's rush to reprivatise it lays bare the ideological nature of its drive for private ownership of everything it can possibly sell off, from Royal Mail to this highly successful public rail service."

"Our backing for the RMT campaign is part of a broader Green Party campaign to return the railways to public ownership. Green MP Caroline Lucas is leading the way with a private members' bill to allow the train companies to "fall back" into public ownership, which is supported by a number of Labour backbenchers and Plaid Cymru MPs."

RMT to ballot staff running the Boris Bikes scheme

The Transport Union the RMT has today confirmed that it is to ballot staff running the London “Boris Bike’s” for both strike action and action short of a strike over a range of grievances:

• The imposition of a 2% pay increase for 2013
• The imposition of shift change patterns
• The continuous bullying and harassment of members
• The company’s refusal to reach a formal agreement on travelling time or on travel allowances

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: "“Despite warnings that the so-called “Boris Bikes” are facing severe docking and capacity problems, the staff running the London cycle hire scheme are facing a bullying management who are imposing outrageous changes to conditions of service while denying our members a fair pay increase for a massively increasing workload. “RMT will not stand aside and watch this group of key transport staff get kicked from pillar to post."

Continuing Mr Crow said: "The London Cycle Hire Scheme is much more than a vanity project and a publicity stunt for the London Mayor, it is now a valuable part of our transport system and the staff should be valued as such. The scheme has attracted global publicity but now risks collapsing into chaos through a massive under-investment in staff, bikes and docking stations. Just over a week ago there were warnings that the scheme was degenerating into a laughing stock because docking stations in key locations have no bikes and that the operators were facing a barrage of complaints from visitors to the City – RMT members will not be left to take the rap from a bullying management that refuses to take responsibility for its actions."

Concluding Bob Crow said: "“We are sending out the clearest message to Serco Barclays, the scheme operators, by calling this ballot that we are serious about this fight for justice on pay and working conditions on the London cycle scheme and we remain available for talks."

Cleaners on the Tube to be balloted for strike action

The RMT have this morning confirmed that cleaners working for Danish multi-national ISS on London Underground are to be balloted for strike action and action short of a strike in a dispute over pay and workplace justice. The dispute comes following the news that ISS will be retaining the Tube Lines contract for another six years, instead of entering into talks with the union on improving working conditions and relations with the union and the workforce the company has marked the contract award by attacking working conditions and undermining industrial relations. 

RMT say their members are concerned over a number of issues. These include:-

• Failure to pay the London Living Wage until six months into the contract. 
• Introducing the "Bradford Factor" attendance rules to monitor sickness and absence. 
• New rostering, extending the unpaid break in the middle of the shift from 30 minutes to 45, 60 or even 75 minutes 
• Introducing biometric and Fingerprint booking on, including for agency staff

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: "In order to resist the attacks by ISS on RMT's members working conditions, the union executive has decided ballot ISS Cleaning grades on the Tube Lines contract, for strike action and industrial action short of strike action, to put pressure on this high-profile and highly profitable global company for workplace justice on London Underground. We will also not allow Boris Johnson and his officials off the hook over their tolerance of this blatant flouting of the London Living Wage right in their back yard."

Ballot papers will be sent to members this week and the ballot will close on Thursday 9th May 2013.