by Steve Hedley, RMT Regional Council Secretary

An all-grades, all-companies ballot is essential if we want to stop sackings, harassment, victimisation and bullying. The very future of the union is at stake.

It doesn’t matter if you are a driver, station staff, controller, cleaner or engineer, you will know someone who has been harassed back to work when sick, been sacked for attendance or suspended for carrying out union activities.

Andy Littlechild on Metronet is a case in point. Andy is one of the best, most dedicated and effective reps I’ve ever met. A health and safety rep for twelve years, he has achieved wonders for permanent and contract staff making sure safety is paramount whatever the cost to management. Andy is a workplace leader who played a major role in the recent Metronet strikes which stopped massive job cuts and won pay rises, free travel and a TfL pension for all Metronet staff.

Unable to attack Metronet workers as a group because of their strong organisation, managers are attempting to destroy the union by making an example of one of our best organisers.

A manager unilaterally rewrote a risk assessment to demand that hard hats are worn, breaking the procedure which says he must do this with the RMT rep, Andy. Management then carried out an ‘audit’ when Andy was working, asking him where his hat was. Andy explained that he didn’t need one as management can’t change an assessment on their own. A belligerent manager ordered Andy off the site.

When Andy returned to work, managers sprung a ‘fact-finding interview’ without notice and threw him onto the street at 3am without transport home. Andy is currently suspended, barred from Metronet premises and ludicrously ‘forbidden’ to talk to any other employee.

RMT members’ response has been swift. Leaflets have gone into depots; the union’s Executive has agreed to our demand for an immediate strike ballot; and workplace meetings are being held. We must now start the same process in other companies where management are ignoring negotiating procedures and sacking our members. We are an industrial union: we need to act like one. Small, localised disputes can be ineffective. We must defend our activists by balloting all grades across all companies.

The list of victimised RMT members is growing. Sarah Hutchins sacked for being pregnant; Jerome Bowes sacked for defending himself against assault; Mo Makhboul sacked for complaining about an abusive customer; Karl Niles sacked for needing time off to recover from asthma attacks - plus many others bullied by power-crazed little Hitlers who have no regard for their own attendance and sickness procedures.

Enough is enough. We cannot sit idly by and let our union be dismantled. Management are aware that without activists we become weak, disorganised and easily defeated. We must stand up for ourselves and our activists - stand up for our union’s very future.

Stop the victimisations. Defend Andy Littlechild. Defend every RMT member.