Off The Rails Autumn 2006

Another world is possible

On 14th July the battle to be the next leader of the Labour Party became a two-horse race. John McDonnell, Hayes & Harlington MP and Chair of the Socialist Campaign Group of MPs, threw his hat into the ring. He needs all the support we can give him to ensure victory over the usurpers that have held our party captive for years.

It had been assumed that Gordon Brown would take over from Blair with no fuss. The press paved the way and will continue to attack anyone or anything that stands in his way. That is why we need to mobilise now.

Given it's a Labour Party affiliate which pays £40,000+ a year for the privilege, you might have thought ASLEF members would get representation at conference.

Sadly not. Keith Norman and the rest of the delegation were turned away from September's conference, having waited for four days to collect their credentials without success. It seems that the party's decision to take conference bureaucracy "in house" to save money has brought in a new wave of incompetence - "delays in processing applications" was the only excuse given.

As New Labour's obsession with privatisation spreads like a virus through the NHS, it is beginning to affect us as workers as well as patients.

A senior conductor on Central Trains has been forced to retire on ill-health. It was either that or the company would sack him for breach of contract. No matter that a routine operation would have enabled him to return to work.

In late August two drivers on the Tube’s Jubilee line, Raj Nathvani and Les Bruty, faced the sack over small performance errors which would normally result at most in a slap on the wrist and extra training.

Les, an RMT drivers’ rep, was charged with gross misconduct for a minor breach of procedure even though there was no-one on the platform, or in the train, to be put at risk! Management refused Raj a rep until his actual disciplinary hearing, collated evidence against him in the form of casual emails from other staff members, then sacked him.

GNER workers are preparing to defend jobs and conditions as the company hits financial crisis. Bermuda-based parent company Sea-Containers filed for bankruptcy protection in the USA on 16th October. But you can bet the bosses will try to bail themselves out at our expense.

Already, GNER has announced job cuts in Travel Centres, which will slash customer service to the bone. The situation is so bad that the TSSA is taking industrial action.

In August ASLEF train drivers at GB Railfreight voted by about 2:1 not to strike against the company closing the final-salary pension scheme to new starters.

Following a difficult year with the 35-hour week and pay dispute (covered in the last two issues of Off The Rails), Network Rail signallers now face a series of fresh attacks.

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Network Rail is using its operations reorganisation to attack the PTR&R (Promotion, Transfer, Redundancy and Resettlement) agreement, casting a shadow over the future of many signalling jobs.

Heathrow Express workers have fought hard against the company's attack on pay and conditions, but the employer's hostility, and division between the unions, has left issues unresolved.

ASLEF and RMT were due to strike over the three-year pay offer on 7, 11 and 21 September. This made the company agree to talks at last, and both unions suspended the first two dates (obviously, they still haven't got the hand of the idea that you can talk and strike at the same time).

After years of attacking its staff and bashing the unions, EWS has produced restructuring plans that are an insult to all groundstaff. They may be a joke, or an attempt to make us accept a milder version at a later date. We're not laughing.

The greatest weakness among rail workers today is our being split into several unions. Management are able to exploit the divisions, and the unions' energies are diverted into duplicating each others' services and competing with each other rather than uniting against the employers. At its worst, they even end up signing separate deals or scabbing on each others' strikes.