paulrutland's blog

Once again, the Morning Star must appeal to its backbone and its lifeblood, the readers who own, support and underwrite the paper - in short, you.

And if you do not respond, and soon, there may well not be a paper to support.

It has been an eventful and in many ways successful four or five years for the Morning Star.

In that period, we have gained formal support and a presence on our board of management from a solid majority of the organised trade union movement - a first that has astonished - and gratified - people throughout the labour movement.

Submitted by Roy Carey

April 22nd 2010 OSP DUTY MANAGER UPDATE

I would like to take this opportunity to make it clear, at the MATS Functional Council OSP meeting on 22/04/2010, the RMT and all other unions involved REFUSED to discuss the job cuts and in fact did not discuss any issue.

(cont'd see attachment)

Standing up for all workers

Wednesday 10th February 2010

In your article titled TfL staff lobby bosses over pay offer (M Star February 3) Steve Hedley, RMT regional organiser, is totally correct in his assertion: "Unless people are prepared to take industrial action, this will keep happening."

It's good to see various trade union leaders saying they will be fighting for their members whoever is running the country, but perhaps they should start now. Most of the recent disputes in the oil refineries, occupations at Visteon etc were started by rank and file with the leaderships being forced to support the workers.

Big adverts in the Morning Star stating how many members you have and pleading for the government not to cut public services and please be progressive do nothing. Fighting back does.

It was great to see the Morning Star headline Stunning victory for Tube workers (August 19), but, as your editorial made clear, this victory only concerns the workforce covered by the RMT who were willing to fight for their terms and conditions.

Other trade unions who have sat back are now left out of this agreement.

The same scenario is taking place in the TfL side of the dispute, but unfortunately also concerns the members of the RMT in this area.

Members of the TfL No.1 Branch visited the picket line at Mount Pleasant Sorting Office on friday 10th July to show solidarity with the CWU fight in London. The action was solid with the typical scab managers brought in from other parts of the country to make it look like work was being done.

We donated the RMT flag which we were told would be hung in the Union office.

Please see attached press release by TSSA and UNISON. The quotes from Gerry Doherty (TSSA) and Dave Prentis (UNISON) are a bit rich considering that in this area they have been in the process of shedding jobs since September 2008! Hundreds have already gone without a mention from these General Secretaries. Why the interest now?

TSSA News Release 8 June 2009 Tfl wastes millions on consultants while thousands face sack UNISON and the TSSA today slammed TfL for wasting millions on consultants while attempting to fill a £2.4billion budget black hole by sacking thousands of staff.

Your help can stop the BNPs national billboard campaign.

Clear Channel – an outdoor advertising agency – have sold the BNP adverts on billboards across the country – they’re financially profiting from the BNP’s vicious campaign.

We are asking all our supporters to send a message to Clear Channel – demanding that they take down the BNP’s racist propaganda.

After you send your letter we will keep you up to date with details about this and other campaigns.

Please log into http://action.hopenothate.org.uk/page/speakout/integrity to register your support.

Click '1 attachment' / file name to download this leaflet; read the text below.

How will Management Keep London Moving By Cutting Jobs in TFL, LUL / Metronet?

THEY WON’T

Will management get the backing of their Duty Managers?

ABOUT WAGE CONCERN

On Friday 15th May, the Employment Opportunities Bill will be debated in Parliament. The Bill has been put forward by Conservative backbenchers and it would enable employers to ‘opt-out’ of the Minimum Wage brought in by the Labour government ten years ago.

If passed, the system would be wide open to abuse by unscrupulous employers. For instance an employment agency could write a Minimum Wage Opt-Out into any contract potential staff would have to sign.

Unbelievably, they tried to claim it was against people’s ‘Human Right to work’ to have a Minimum Wage.

April 2009 TfL No.1 BRANCH April 2009

NEWSLETTER

Despite the overwhelming majority voting for industrial action to force management into meaningful talks on both pay and job cuts, London Underground (LUL) have threatened to silence the membership by having its lawyers use legal loopholes contained in the anti-trade union laws to deny the democratic right to take action.

The RMT will not allow its members to be treated in this way, and will now re-ballot with a campaign for an even bigger majority 'YES' vote. TfL members will also re-ballot to maintain unity throughout any action.

Dear Colleagues

There has been a lot of news in recent days about the proposed 30% sell-off of Royal Mail to a private concern, the most notable forerunner being TNT. This is a company most notorious for it's strike breaking antics at Rupert Murdoch's Wapping plant in 1986.

TNT has a track record of cutting jobs to boost profits and works on the basis of 10 part-timers to one full-timer to cut costs.

In the last 9 months of 2008 the postal service made £225 million profit whilst TNT's profits have collapsed.