RMT Network Rail Maintenance members vote by over 95% to reject harmonisation proposals

RAIL UNION RMT announced today that members working for Network Rail Maintenance have voted by over 95% to reject harmonisation plans in a referendum ballot.

In the vote, 4094 members voted to reject the proposals against 151 in favour.

RMT had been engaged in discussions with Network Rail in an effort to reach an agreement on harmonisation but pulled out and went to ballot of the membership when it was clear that the talks had been effectively hijacked at top level as part of a drive for cutbacks in working conditions.

The harmonisation process is brought to a halt as the result of the referendum ballot and staff will retain their current terms and conditions.

Bob Crow, RMT General Secretary, said today;

“This is a magnificent result. We recommended that our members reject Network Rail’s proposals and they have done so by a massive majority.

There is no doubt that the harmonisation process, which we entered into in good faith, was hijacked by senior Network Rail managers looking to stonewall progress, and who saw harmonisation as an opportunity to attack pay and conditions as part of their £3 billion cuts plans.

Staff will now retain their existing terms and conditions.”

GMB Accuse Senior Managers Of Provoking The Unofficial Dispute At Lindsay By The Layoff Of Original 51 Workers In Breach Of Agreements

It is clear from what Richard Rowlands told the union that there never was any intention to redeploy these workers despite the company agreeing to do this just a few short weeks ago say GMB

22 Jun 2009

GMB today revealed that two senior managers at Lindsay Oil Refinery site Richard Rowlands and Ian Elliot instructed a contractor on site, R Blackett and Charlton, to hire 61 new workers although they knew that the original contractor Shaw were about to make 51 workers, doing exactly the same jobs, redundant three days later. GMB claim that Richard Rowlands and Ian Elliot did this deliberately in breach of agreements and accuse them of provoking the unofficial disputes in the engineering construction industry.

Iran: The elections and workers organisations

This is a statement by the Tehran bus workers whose union has been subject to continuous oppression since it was relaunched in 2005.

The Tehran and Suburbs Vahed Bus Company Workers’ Trade Union is purely a trade and workers’ organisation. This trade union was formed in 2005 based on the consciousness of the workers and the broad support and involvement of workers, and  despite its ups and downs and many problems, has continued its activity as before until today.

UNISON NEC: And the winner is?

This is from UNISON NEC member Jon Rogers blog

The first meeting of the newly elected National Executive Council(NEC) was scheduled to take place at the close of National Delegate Conference on Friday afternoon.

This meeting is chaired each year, at the outset, by the General Secretary, since the former President and Vice-Presidents have ceased to hold office and the main item of business is the election of a new “Presidential Team”.

At the commencement of the meeting, General Secretary Dave Prentis noted the presence of John McDermott from the Yorkshire and Humberside Region. John had been a candidate in the NEC election and had secured 4,670 votes. His opponent had secured 4,577 votes but had been declared elected.

Dave requested – but did not instruct – John to leave the meeting. John pointed out (quite reasonably in my view) that he had won the election and was entitled to be present. In response to John’s refusal to comply with his request, Dave invited Deputy General Secretary Keith Sonnet to make a statement.

Keith announced that the meeting of the NEC would be adjourned until 8 July at Mabledon Place and members of the NEC left the meeting room without having elected a President or either Vice President.

I have queried the power used by officers to adjourn the NEC meeting as it was clear to me that there were other options to enable the election of the Presidential Team. I will report to branches on any response. Given the highly unusual circumstances in which the Independent Scrutineer has declared as elected a candidate who did not win their election it may well be that the Union will not be able to resolve this difficult question without the intervention of the Certification Officer. I will report to branches further as information comes to light.

Essex Fire Crews tell Fire Authority – suspend plans for firefighter cuts or ballot starts on June 25th

Essex fire crews and officers have given the fire authority a further 10 days to shelve plans to cut firefighters or they will ballot for industrial action. The Fire Brigades Union has accused the fire authority of targeting frontline fire crews for cuts rather than looking at genuine efficiency savings.

The union has called for a joint review of the balance between office based activities and the 999 emergency response with a view to redeploying resources to fire stations. It says there also needs to be a better balance between prevention activities and the need for a proper and safe emergency response.

Lindsey oil refinery – bosses refuse to negotiate

One thousand striking workers at the Lindsey oil refinery have called for national walkouts at engineering construction sites across Britain after bosses refused to negotiate.

A mass meeting of the strikers, who first walked off the job in an unofficial strike against redundancies last week, issued the call after executives at the huge Total-owned refinery in Lincolnshire refused to meet their union reps on Tuesday.

“No more blank cheques”

A UNISON Press release from today’s session of their conference

Dave Prentis laid down the gauntlet to the Labour government today, as he told UNISON’s national delegate conference: “No more blank cheques.”

The general secretary told delegates that a Mori poll, commissioned by the union, had this morning revealed that “over 73% of the public and 80% of public service workers say that private companies should not run our public services” and that “over 70% of public service workers now say they won’t vote Labour.”

Build Britain out of recession – Unite calls for action to kick-start social housing building programme

An action plan to kick-start the social housing building programme for the 4.5million people on waiting lists was launched by Unite, the largest union in the country, today (Wednesday, 17 June).

Unite argues in its blueprint, Meeting housing need: Building Britain out of recession, that such a massive council house building programme would meet social need and be an engine for economic revival generally, by creating thousands of jobs in the construction industry and its suppliers.

Sackings spark second Lindsey strike

Hundreds of engineering construction contractors have walked out at the Lindsey oil refinery in North Lincolnshire for the second time over job losses.

The protest began after major sub-contractor Shaw Ltd announced 51 redundancies among contract staff with immediate effect, while another employer on the site was hiring workers.

Workers’ unity secures Linamar convenor’s job

Unite convenor Rob Williams has been reinstated to his post at the Swansea plant of car components maker Linamar, the company and the union announced today (Wednesday).

The decision reverses last month’s dismissal of Mr Williams by the company and means that the strike planned to secure his reinstatement, due to start tomorrow, has been called off.  Unite and Linamar will now work together to ensure the plant’s future success.

Unite assistant general secretary, Len McCluskey, who led talks with management to secure Rob Williams’ reinstatement, said today: “We are delighted at this outcome, which represents a victory for the solidarity of the workforce at Linamar.  It is also a tribute to the wider support for Rob expressed by the labour movement throughout Wales in particular.

“I hope that employers throughout the country will take note that Unite will always be prepared to stand behind its elected representatives and will not accept attacks of this kind against union organisation.

“Now this dispute is behind us, we are looking forward to working constructively with the company to help secure the future of the Swansea plant in the very difficult worldwide economic environment.”

From the UNITE website