Response to Gerry Duffy's Bulletin

Submitted by Admin on 15 May, 2009 - 15:57

From RMT Regional Organiser Steve Hedley ...

In answer to Gerry Duffys bulletin on the strike I would like to deal with the distortions of the truth that he has made.

1 The pay offer. The offer is one percent this year and rpi plus 0.5 percent for years 2 to 5 .This is right over the Olympic period where Australian rail workers were very well rewarded when the games were in Sydney. This is clearly unacceptable but we have not walked out on talks and will continue to negotiate.

LUL: Rates of Pay & Conditions of Service 2009, Redundancies and Breach of Agreements

Submitted by Admin on 15 May, 2009 - 08:55

From RMT General Secretary, Bob Crow

Dear Colleague,

LUL: Rates of Pay & Conditions of Service 2009, Redundancies and Breach of Agreements

Further to my earlier letters, I am writing to remind you that the re-ballot in this dispute begins today and you should receive your ballot paper in the next day or so.

You returned a magnificent YES vote for action in the first ballot, but LUL turned to their lawyers and used technicalities that would have made no difference to the outcome to stop your union using that mandate for action.

RMT re-ballot of 10,000 Tube and TfL workers over jobs, pay and breaches of agreements starts today

Submitted by Janine on 14 May, 2009 - 21:01

RMT press release, issued today

THE TUBE’S biggest union today began a re-ballot of nearly 10,000 members across London Underground and Transport for London for strike action in separate disputes centred on jobs, pay and breaches of disciplinary and attendance agreements.

The re-run of the strike ballots follows a provocative legal challenge by LUL to ballots last month, which nonetheless showed a rock-solid five-to-one majority in favour of action.

Up to 3000 jobs are under threat across the Tube and TfL.

May Branch newsletter

Submitted by Joffe on 14 May, 2009 - 19:41

Please find attached the latest Branch newsletter.

"Last month tube management succeeded in de-railing our democratic right to strike for better pay, against bullying and against compulsory redundancies.
Running off to the courts and threatening the union with legal action rather than negotiating with us shows their contempt for the workforce."

POSTPONED: Training Workshop: Recruitment, Retention and Managing Membership Information

This has now been postponed until next month.

RMT Regional Membership Secretary Dave Rayfield explains the hows and whys of recruiting and retaining members, and keeping your membership information up-to-date. This workshop is a must for all RMT reps. Activists and members are welcome too.

Venue: Exmouth Arms, Starcross Street, near Euston

This workshop is also running the following day in east London. Details here.

Managers Breach Safety at Blackhorse Road

Submitted by plectrum on 14 May, 2009 - 03:10

While Victoria line drivers are being sacked for safety breaches which would not even have occurred had the company fitted correct-side door enable equipment to its trains, it seems that managers can make safety-critical mistakes with impunity. An example of this took place on 7th May at Blackhorse Road station. At about 1700, both escalators failed. The Supervisor tried everything to get at least one of them restarted but without success.

COWARDS! LUL management run to the courts

Submitted by plectrum on 14 May, 2009 - 03:04

RMT members working for LUL recently returned a massive YES vote for industrial action to oppose the company's insulting pay offer, it's job cut proposals, and it's complete disregard of agreements such as the Attendance at Work Policy. With a good turnout, over 83% of members voted for strike action and 94% for action short of a strike. The message sent out by this result could hardly be clearer: We will not stand by while you cut staff, attack our living standards and bully us into working when we're sick.

VICTORIA LINE DISPUTE - management resorts to rumours, gossip and censorship

Submitted by plectrum on 14 May, 2009 - 02:53

Like school yard bullies who have been given a bloody nose, managers at Seven Sisters who have for so long pushed our members around and made their lives hell, are now licking their wounds. Rather than waking up and treating you with the respect you deserve, they have been busy spreading rumours and trying to break your resolve; see Frequently Asked Questions below for a full response on some of the nonsense they have been coming out with.

Wage Concern Campaign

Submitted by paulrutland on 12 May, 2009 - 11:33

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.