RMT Follow

Now it's Waterloo sunset for Blair's New Labour IN AN important development last week, the Waterloo Branch of the RMT rail workers' union has agreed to support Respect candidates standing in the London Assembly and European elections. The decision reflects the deep disgust members have with a Labour Party that has turned its back on working people.

THE WARS in Iraq and Afghanistan were built on many lies, but the terrible massacre on Madrid's railways highlights one of the biggest-the world is not a safer place. As RMT members on London Underground we are only too aware of the vulnerability of the tube network. The same newspapers that supported the war regularly run stories with lurid headlines telling us how the bombers are out to get the Underground.

NEARLY 3,000 RMT union members working for rail contractor Jarvis were to begin voting for strike action this week to protect their employment rights when they are transferred to Network Rail. Jarvis's maintenance contracts are due to be brought in-house and the workers re-employed by Network Rail on 1 April.

FIREFIGHTERS' union leaders are recommending the union opens up its political funds to allow backing for non-Labour candidates. The move, to be voted on at their FBU union conference in May, is the latest sign of a dramatic shift taking place in the unions. The RMT rail union has already moved to open its funds up in the same way, a move which saw the union expelled by the Labour Party last month. Similar debates are now growing in other unions.

MEMBERS of the RMT union working on Metronet, which controls two thirds of London Underground maintenance, voted by five to one for strike action over the sacking of six track workers.

THERE ARE red, angry faces at the RMT union. There are red, humiliated faces at Metronet. Tube workers are angry at Metronet's recent sacking of six Farringdon track workers.

LABOUR LEADERS have expelled a trade union because it refuses to back Blair's Thatcherite policies. RMT union conference delegates bravely stood up for their members and against New Labour's diktat last Friday.

LABOUR'S DECISION to expel the RMT union has sent tremors through the wider trade union movement. Intense debate has taken place in many unions over the last few years about whether the unions should continue only to fund Labour. That discussion is now even more pressing.

NEW LABOUR was set to plunge itself deeper into crisis this week by expelling the union that first got the Labour Party established a century ago. Its assault on the RMT rail union is creating a storm in the wider trade union movement. Other trade unionists, including the 250,000-strong postal and telecom workers' Communication Workers Union (CWU) nationally, have rallied in support of the RMT.

THE LABOUR Party has threatened to disaffiliate the RMT rail union for allowing union members to decide on where their subs go.

THE RMT union has won significant concessions over safety from the companies that run the tube system after calling industrial action planned for this week.

THREE BRANCHES of the RMT rail workers' union want to switch their support from Labour to the Scottish Socialist Party.