London underground engineering branch discuss how to organise a militant fightback

Around 45 members of the RMT union’s London Underground engineering branch attended a meeting last week to discuss the best way to organise a militant fightback in the workplace.

The branch has recently won a major victory for signal workers on the tube network, boosting members confidence.

Ralph Darlington, professor of employment relations at Salford university, presented new research he has done.

He contrasted the RMT’s “fighting model” with the “organising model” preferred by the Unite union.

He showed that the RMT’s model is more combative and activates more people in their workplaces compared to the Unite version.

Alex Gordon, the union president, and Bob Crow, the RMT general secretary, also spoke.

There was a discussion about how people could be more effective in the workplace.

Activists, who are facing renewed attacks, said that they were glad that the union was calling a meeting on how to organise.