RMT Follow

TUBE WORKERS across all grades are to begin taking industrial action in a battle to restore safety standards following the imposition of the PPP privatisation scheme. The RMT union last week announced that 81 percent of its members had voted for industrial action and 55 percent for strikes over safety.

Activists and reps in the RMT union London region held their monthly meeting last Thursday. There was real anger about the recent derailments on the tube and real unity over the need to act.

THE CONVENTION of the Trade Union Left set for February will bring trade unionists together to debate the vital issue of political representation. Mick Skiggs is chair of the RMT rail union's Portsmouth branch. He says, "The expulsion of George Galloway is a further example of New Labour's control freakery and how at odds it is with the interests of working people.

Elections MEMBERS OF the RMT rail workers' union are currently voting to elect a new president. The previous president, John Cogger, died earlier this year. Socialists should make sure they campaign and vote for Tony Donaghy. We need to make sure that right wing candidates such as Colin Cook don't get a look-in.

In your area there may well be a longstanding Socialist Worker reader who has a video of the marvellous film about the Polish/German revolutionary Rosa Luxemburg. If so, borrow it. Among other outstanding scenes is one where Rosa Luxemburg's friends implore her to leave Berlin as the forerunners of the Nazi stormtroopers hunt her down.

Sacked for following his doctor's orders TUBE DRIVERS in the RMT rail union are balloting for strike action at Edgware Road depot over a driver who was sacked while on sick leave.

Millions of Labour supporters feel a growing distress at the direction the party has taken This feeling was reflected at a conference fringe meeting organised by the Socialist Campaign Group in Bournemouth on Monday evening. The speaker who really captured the sense of bitterness with New Labour was Bob Crow, leader of the RMT rail workers' union.

"As we move into a new political order, where all mainstream parties have become the same, it is important for all working class people to have a choice that has a clear agenda for socialist politics." Bill O'Dowd, chair of Stratford 1 RMT union branch

TUBE DRIVERS in the RMT union at Edgware Road, London, will ballot for strike action over the sacking of a colleague.

BUS WORKERS in Devon have forced their bosses into big concessions after nine days of strikes. The strikers' RMT union general secretary Bob Crow says, "Our members' stand against low pay in the company has been nothing short of magnificent." Their determination has won massive support among the travelling public in Exeter and Torbay.

TALKS BETWEEN the RMT union and management of the Caledonian MacBrayne ferry company over pay were taking place as Socialist Worker went to press. The company had been refusing to meet the union and had launched a campaign in the Scottish press directed at RMT general secretary Bob Crow.

"RMT MEMBERS, now knowing the company's pay offer as outlined to them at Exeter and Torquay on Sunday 20 July and the greedy excesses paid out to the directors, can only take one view that what is good for them is not good for us. The members have decided to continue their struggle for better pay and conditions and nothing short of their claim will result in normal working. The sooner Stagecoach management realise this, the better for them, ourselves and the passengers."