RMT press releases

STRIKES BY some 150 cleaners on three contracts across the Channel tunnel network have come a step closer after RMT members voted by overwhelming margins for industrial action in a bid to raise appallingly low pay levels.

The union has demanded fresh talks with subcontracting employers OCS and Initial after workers on the OCS Eurostar contract and Initial’s Eurostar and the Network Rail Channel tunnel rail link contracts endorsed action with only two votes cast against.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:

Transport union RMT said today that it has secured a ground breaking Olympics pay deal on DLR worth £2500 made up of a guaranteed attendance payment of £900 and guaranteed overtime payments for all staff throughout the Olympics and paralympics period.

The agreement is constructed as follows:

• £900 attendance bonus, paid at £100 per week over a 9-week period for all staff in every grade.∙
• Time +¾ for any hour worked on overtime throughout the 9-week period with a guaranteed minimum 5 hours per week, 45 hours over the 9 week period, for all staff in every grade.

RAIL UNION RMT have confirmed that balloting for strike action and action short of a strike on Heathrow Express will begin tomorrow over the unfair dismissal of a driver member and over a campaign of harassment and victimisation against an RMT representative.

TUBE UNION RMT today rejected a “derisory” Olympics pay offer from London Underground and agreed to step up the pressure for a deal that properly rewards the additional work load and pressure that staff will need to carry throughout the Olympics period.

LU have offered a flat rate of £100 linked to “targets” and some additional shift allowances for some staff which are divisive and which fall well short of RMT’s demands for a flat rate payment to all staff across all grades applicable throughout the whole Olympics and Paralympics period.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

RAIL UNION RMT warned today that the tendering for the new Greater Western franchise, now underway and due to operate from April 2013, is being conducted under the terms of the Sir Roy McNulty Rail Review before the Government have even taken it through the parliamentary process, with dire consequences for both jobs and passenger services.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: “It is an insult to democracy that the Greater Western franchise is being tendered on the basis of a half-baked and totally bogus set of ideas advanced by McNulty before they have even been endorsed by the country’s law makers."

RMT welcomes high speed rail 2, but warns that it mustn't be at the expense of jobs or services elsewhere in the rail system and should be built, run and owned by the public sector.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said: “No one has fought harder for the investment and modernisation required to drag the UK’s railways out of the slow lane than RMT and development of high speed links must be a key component of our rail plans.

Rail union RMT today demanded that the Government reverse the decision to award the crucial Thameslink fleet contract to Siemens after it emerged in a series of parliamentary answers to Derby MP Chris Williamson that the Siemens bid was priced in Euros and with the 10% decline in the value of the currency since tendering the cost to the UK taxpayer on the £1.4 billion contract has soared by £140 million.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said today:

"These inflation-busting increases show that the great rail fares privatisation swindle is still rocking along, with the train operating companies laughing all the way to the bank.

Independent analysis by Government departments has proven that the fare increases are trousered by the shareholders of the private companies while passengers pay through the nose to travel in rammed and creaking carriages.

Responding to news that unemployment has risen by 128,000 to 2.638 million in the three months to October, RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“These latest shocking figures show that all the Governments promises on jobs and apprenticeships are as hollow as a chocolate Father Christmas."

RAIL UNION RMT today slammed news that private train operator Stagecoach is to receive £90 million a year in state aid to prop up its East Midlands franchise.