Blogs

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.

Last month, Israel Railways, a state-owned company, launched a new policy denying employment to railroad crossing guards who have no permit to carry weapons - that is: who have not served in the Israeli army. This policy will lead to the lay-off of the approximately 150 Arab railway workers who monitor and maintain Israel's level crossings.

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.

Excess Wheel Screech.

At the recent Fleet Liaison meting Metronet have finally declared what the cause of the infernal wheel squeal is. Apparently it is all down the grease pots not being refilled. When this problem was first reported in November 2008 one of the main areas of cause was thought to have been the empty grease pots, but this was dismissed by the track people on the grounds that their maintenance schedule was robust enough to rule this out. Now some 6 months later we are told the grease pots are faulty and will be replaced or rectified by August 2009.

Bakerloo south group health and safety rep / adventurer Joe Thompson is going to conquer the alps on a bicycle in aid of macmillan cancer support. Joes challenge which takes place between 17th and 21st of september 2009 and will include 3 days covering 315km of the alps toughest cycling peaks made famous by the tour de france, this includes Col du Galibier and alp d,Huez.

Happily, the industrial action between Wednesday 8th April and Thursday 9th April 2009 was a success.

Particular thanks go to the many managers who somehow found time in their “busy and demanding schedules” to keep seats warm at various stations. As a result, this freed staff taking industrial action to:

· Hand out thousands of leaflets to thousands of travelling customers informing them of the harassment, intimidation and bullying to which staff on the Willesden Green Group are subject.

At the recent TFAG, (Fleet Liaison) RMT H&S reps were told the reason for the problems with wheel/flange squeal have now been identified as being caused by grease pots either wrongly directed or being empty. This is exactly what the track people told RMT H&S reps back in February were definitely not causing the fault. MRIS, the specialist team brought in by Metronet, however have now confidently declared that they have been able to locate the source of the problems and will have it rectified by August 2009.

This video shows why workers are occupying Visteon factories in Enfield and elsewhere. Today, I sent their union rep the following message ...

One of RMT's equality reps emailed me a few questions for a course he is doing. I thought it might be worth sharing the questions and my replies with website readers.

1. What do you think are the key equality issues in the workplace?

Following an overwhelmimg yes vote for Industrial action and London Undergrounds refusal to invite the Equality and Human Rights Commission to investigate Managements discriminatory and abusive treatment of our members, a strike has been called as follows:

Members are not to book-on for any turns of duty that commence between 18.59 Hours on Wednesday 8th April and 18.58 Hours on Thursday 9th April 2009.