off the rails...• is a quarterly pamphlet, plusbulletins as needed for particularcampaigns or disputes.is written by railway workers -all our reports are from the frontline. Names are left off so thatwriters can tell their stories andexpress their views without fearof victimisation.• is for all rail workers, whateveryour grade, location or employer,whatever trade union you are in.• aims to provide information to railworkers, support to our struggles,and a forum to discuss strategies.welcomes and will publish reports,comments and opinions from all railworkers.• is fiercely pro-union, but isindependent of the union headoffices, so is not chauvinistabout any particular union, andis free to criticise the unions’leadership when we feel it isnecessary.• has a statement of aims called‘Fantasy Union of Rail andTransport Workers’: get a copywhen you subscribe.• is published by the socialistgroup Workers’ Liberty, but aimsto be a platform and anorganising tool for all activistswho share our basic outlook.• can be sent to you in the post -send a fiver to the address below,or phone us to arrange subs formultiple copies.• can be contacted at: 20E TowerWorkshops, Riley Road, LondonSE1 3DG, 07941 777632offtherails@workersliberty.orgwww.workersliberty.org/offtherails

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off the railsA platform for rank-and-file rail workers

Winter 2014/2015 - 30p where sold

In this issue: Off The Rails goes to France; East MidlandsTrains; Northern Rail; London Underground; support the

Kurds; cleaners’ struggles; can we force Labour to rentionalisethe railway?; RMT rule changes; Marxism at Work: What are

Trade Unions?; and more!

Keep The Guard On TheTrain!

Drivers, signallers, guards: all grades unite to fightDriver Only Operation!

Northern Railworkers voteon pay dealASLEF members at Northern Rail havevoted to take strike action over pay. Theresult was 82.2% voting Yes on an 82%turnout.

The union met the company's managementon 17 November, where the company offereda further 0.3% in year one of the deal, pluscommitments on "retention" talks for drivers.On 18 November, as Off The Rails went topress the union's Executive Committee hadresolved to hold a referendum on this offer,with full details promised with the voting paper.

This seems an odd choice for the unionleadership to make, rather than rejecting whatis still a measly increase with a very strongstrike mandate backing them up. It isespecially worrying in the context of ASLEF'srecent history - it tends not to put pay dealsout for referendum unless it is recommendingacceptance.

The referendum closes on 8 December, justthree days before the expiry of the strikemandate, meaning ASLEF will need to notifyNorthern of a strike by 4 December, beforevoting closes, or be forced into holdinganother strike ballot.

RMT, the union representing the majority ofnon-drivers at Northern, has put thecompany's previous offer (2.7% in 2014, 2.5%or RPI in 2015) to a referendum of itsmembers, with the message that their reps"strongly [recommend]" acceptance.

This is a worryingly conservativeapproach for the union to take, especiallywhen they will almost certainly facemassive job cuts after the new NorthernRail and Transpennine Express franchisesare agreed in 2016.

Off The Rails goes to France...Off the Rails was inParis at thebeginning ofOctober, speakingabout theexperience of 20

years of railway privatisation in Britainto French railworkers who are facingthe start of a serious drive on the partof their state to privatise the railwaybecause of pressure from the EU’sfourth rail package reforms.

We applauded the fact that Frenchrailworkers have already taken 2 weeksof strike action in June against the plans,contrasting it with the failure of Britishrailworkers to strike against privatisationback in 1994 at its inception.

The French government has since

ratified the plans and the meeting wasmainly to discuss that previous andfuture action.In our contribution wehoped that they could use the experienceof industrial action and politicalcampaigning against our privatised railoperators to boost their public campaignagainst the plans.

Experience now shows decisively thatprivatising the infrastructure definitelydoes not work.

Network Rail, effectively a stateowned company since 2001 wasrestored without any fanfare to thepublic sector in all but name inSeptember 2014 bringing with it £34billion pounds of debt mainly accruedduring its time as Railtrack theprivatised infrastructure company.

Cleaners on Eurostar fought acampaign this year over pay, workloadand staffing levels.

Cleaners on London Underground’sJubilee, Northern and Piccadilly linesbattled hard to resist their employer’simposition of biometric booking on. These groups of cleaners work for ISS -popularly known in the industry asInternational Slavery Services. But othercleaning contractors have foundthemselves facing a fightback from theirworkforces too.

Interserve cleaners at Waterloo arebattling management bullying. Cleanersfought a dispute with contractor Voith onVirgin West Coast over the victimisationof a workmate. Merseyrail’s cleaningcontractor Lorne Stewart faced strikeaction after tabling a below-inflation payoffer.

Across the various contractors,cleaners experience low pay, unsafe andunpleasant conditions, and substitutionby agency workers.

Each dispute is fought with greatcommitment, and often great sacrifice, bythe cleaners. But they are also foughtagainst heavy odds. They will remainuphill struggles for as long as theyremain isolated battles.

RMT - the only rail union that takes aninterest in cleaners - could make thesebattles more effective by linking them upinto a co-ordinated national struggle. Itseemed to be doing this a couple ofyears ago with a spate of synchronisedaction, which brought some results. Butwe haven’t heard much from this initiativelately.

Let’s get it back on track.

Cleaners’ struggles profession. We believe that workers can fight most

effectively when we all fight together, withthe most powerful groups of workers (likedrivers) using their strength to improvethe conditions of all workers. Ultimatelywe see class struggle as the means toachieving socialism and narrow, sectionalunionism that protects one group ofworkers - sometimes at the expense ofothers - is an obstacle to this.

But even if you don’t agree, the fightagainst DOO is inextricably linked to thefight to protect guards/conductors’ jobs.Without guards, trains can only run DOO.With them, there is no need for any moreDOO than there is already. DOO wouldalso be bad for drivers, with serious

safety implications for drivers left in solecharge of packed trains.

ASLEF should work with RMT in itscampaign against DOO. It would beridiculous not to. It should also use itslink to the Labour Party to put pressureon it to pledge that a future Labourgovernment would scrap all proposals toextend DOO.

Time grows ever shorter on this. Wemust not sleepwalk into aMcNightmare...

RMT rule changesThe next RMT Annual GeneralMeeting, in June 2015, will be achance to discuss changes to theunion’s rules.

The Executive will be submitting itsown proposals arising from the review ofthe union’s structure - but rank-and-filemembers can also submit proposalsthrough branches.

Eight branches need to submit anyparticular proposal for it to get on theagenda. Off The Rails is promoting fiveproposals: see the insert in the zine forthe full wording.

1. DISPUTE ADVISORYCOMMITTEES. We want a new rule thatwhenever we have a dispute, the unionmust recognise a committee elected byand from the workers involved to makethe dispute as effective as possible andto advise the union on strategy.

2. GIVE OUR EQUALITIESCOMMITTEES MORE CLOUT. Instead

of being powerless and ‘advisory’, ourWomen’s, Black and Ethnic Minority andLesbian/Gay/Bi/Trans Committeesshould be empowered to organise eventsand campaigns.

3. DISABLED MEMBERS’COMMITTEE. RMT doesn’t have one - itshould!

4. A LARGER AGM. Currently, only 70or so delegates make policy for thewhole union. A bigger AGM would bemore representative and democratic.

5. LONGER TIME FOR BRANCHESTO SUBMIT AMENDMENTS. Instead ofjust voting For or Against a motion,branches should have more chance tosubmit proposed changes to them.

2 11

The Department for Transport’s“Stakeholder Consultation”document, released in Summer 2014,contained a requirement for biddersfor the next Northern Rail franchise toset out a plan for moving to DriverOnly Operation (DOO).

In addition to this, it left the question ofwhether to introduce DOO onTranspennine Express to the discretionof those bidding to run that franchise.

Moving to DOO nationally is one of thekey recommendations of “Realising thePotential of GB Rail”, aka The McNultyReport.

ASLEF leaders have speculated thatthe Government and rail bosses intend touse the railway in the north of England asa “testing ground” for the implementationof McNulty; if it can be achieved there, itshould prove to be possible everywhereelse. Northern Rail is the single biggestrail franchise, so this makes sense.Another reason they have suggested forthis choice is that both Northern and TPEare up there, out the way, where no-onewill notice. This makes sense too: usepassengers in northern towns andsuburbs as guinea pigs for cuts tostaffing and safety and see what

happens before they try it on routesrunning in and out of London orBirmingham.

RMT has done more than speculate onthis, and has been running a livelycampaign against DOO for some timenow with the slogan “Keep the Guard onthe Train, Keep the Train Safe”. This hasincluded badges for traincrew andmembers of the public, a postcardcampaign highlighting the issues to MPs,publicity stalls outside stations, and pressreleases. Councillors in major cities arealso passing motions in opposition to theNorthern and TPE franchise plans topressurise the Government andencourage the RMT’s campaign.

We think the unions are correct in theiranalyses. If these staffing cuts becomereality in the north, then we can expectthem everywhere.

So what can we do? RMT (andASLEF) members can get involved in the“Keep the Guard on the Train” campaignin their area and ensure that staff andpublic alike are aware of what theproposals will mean for jobs, quality ofservice and safety. (See the centrepages of this issue of Off The Rails for aninterview with a campaign organiser.)

ASLEF members can use the union’sstructures to try and make the unioncampaign seriously against DOO.

Some in ASLEF are lukewarm aboutcampaign activity on this issue, claimingthat it’s not the job of a drivers’ union todefend guards’ jobs. We think thisapproach is wrong for several reasons.

Off The Rails believes in industrialunionism: all workers in a given industryshould be organised in the same union,rather than being divided by grade or

No to DOO!Last year, RMT members on EastMidlands Trains (EMT) took nearlyeight weeks of industrial action (shortof strikes).

After EMT bosses sought a high courtinjunction, some of the action wasdeemed illegal, on the basis that it was infact strike action, rather than actions-short-of-strikes.

EMT is suing RMT for hundreds ofthousands of pounds off the back of thatruling, but say that they will reduce theamount of damages they will claim if theunion agrees to swingeing changes tothe terms and conditions of SeniorConductors.

The RMT Executive will likely agree tothis to save the union money. It will bebolstered in this by the legal advice it hasreceived, and a decision by the EMTRMT Company Council to agree to thedetrimental changes. The SeniorConductor company council reps wereout-voted by the four On Train companycouncil reps.

The Senior Conductors would like tobring to the attention of all unionmembers the likely devastating impactthey think any decision by the RMTExecutive to ratify this agreement willproduce amongst their grade and othergrades nationally.

Having been called on to strike by theunion’s leadership, representing thewhole union, they feel rightly aggrievedthat the upshot of their loyal action willsee their terms and conditions sacrificedin a misplaced effort to protect unionfunds. They fear that recruitment,retention and the readiness to takeindustrial action for the forseeable futureamongst this grade will be very badlyaffected.

The formal decision is likely to be

taken at a meeting of the RMT Executivein December. Senior Conductors andtheir supporters will be lobbying thismeeting, and if the decision stands willbe calling for a ballot of the membersaffected.

If the Executive agrees to EMT’s deal,won’t members think twice about votingfor action when they know that, if theunion doesn’t get the right legal adviceand is later threatened with financialsanction after an unfavourable legalruling (workers usually lose againstemployers when it comes to the law) itwill probably throw them to the wolvesrather than taking a collective hit?

Senior RMT figures are suggesting thatthe union cannot take the financial hit. Inan effort to blunt some of the argumentspresented by EMT Senior Conductors,they say that this won’t happen againbecause the union’s industrial action willonly take the form of strike action fromnow!

This seems to be a case of throwingthe baby out with the bath water andshould be the decision of an AGM ratherthan the Executive.

Whether this is adopted or not we muststill give these members fair treatmentand pay the fine rather than sell theirT&Cs.

Will this be the defining moment ofour new General Secretary’s term ofoffice? Whatever happened tosolidarity?

East Midlands Trains

10 3

Tube jobs fightSinceNovember2013,LondonUndergroundworkershave beenfighting amanagementcuts plan

that could see hundreds of jobsslashed and every ticket office on thenetwork close.

Strikes in February and April, as wellas overtime bans and other industrialaction, along with the threat of furtherstrikes, have pushed management back.They have been forced to delay theimplementation of their cuts until early2016, and make a number ofconcessions to the RMT (the only Tubeunion which has consistently fought thecuts).

These concessions include aguarantee that any worker affected by

the new staffing model will be “mapped”into a grade of equivalent salary, as wellas minor concessions on the extent ofthe staffing reduction.

However, the prospect of savage cutsand closures remain. Supporters of OffThe Rails’ sister publication, theTubeworker bulletin, have led in the wayin building “Hands Off London Transport”,a campaigning coalition involving tradeunionists, disabled activists, studentunions, and other working-classcommunity campaigns, because we seethis issue not just as an industrialstruggle between bosses and workers,but a class battle over public transport.

The latest phase of the campaign hasseen unions enter local negotiations overstaffing levels at individual stations.

Tubeworker supporters will bearguing strongly that, if thesenegotiations leave the job cuts planintact, London Underground workersshould gear up for more strikes.

Support the Kurds!The struggle of the Kurdish people,especially in the city of Kobane in“Syrian” Kurdistan, against thegenocidal, clerical-fascism of the“Islamic State” is as inspiring as thesituation as a whole is tragic.

Off The Rails was pleased to see thatthe Central Line East branch of the RMTpassed an excellent motion in support ofthe Kurds, which you can read atbit.ly/1ESYqnb

Kurdish activists in London, and thosestanding in solidarity with them, haveheld demonstrations and protests in or

near some of our workplaces recently,including one at Oxford Circus that led tothe station being evacuated (helpfullymaking the case, along the way, to endthe madness of LU’s staffing cuts: therewas nowhere near enough staff on thegateline to respond to the protest safely).

Thousands rallied in London forKobane on 1 November, but onesolitary RMT banner, from PaddingtonNo. 1 branch, was the only unionbanner there. The labour movementmust mobilise to support the Kurds!

delay minutes and the problems involvedin fighting for terms and conditionsacross many different employers. Wewould also still be stuck with theludicrously inefficient franchising systemitself, which transport behemoths likeFirst Group have shown they are willingto challenge in court at great expense toall of us.

Despite the flaws in these proposalsthey still go too far for transportmagnates like Tim O’Toole, the boss ofFirst Group. He recently claimed theyindicated the Labour leadership had a“fixation” on renationalisation, which mayhave come as a surprise to the variousLabour Party conference delegates theleadership have overruled on thisquestion over the years. Labour’sproposals would eat into the potentialprofits of First, and companies like it,even if they would not provide fullrenationalisation.

But the limited movement shows theLabour leadership is vulnerable on thisquestion. Pressure from affiliated unionson Labour while in opposition, and onany post-2015 Labour government, couldforce further movement and, at the veryleast, open up a new front of political andindustrial battle over the issue.

Workers’ Liberty, the group whichpublishes Off The Rails calls for a“Socialist Campaign for a Labour Victory”in next year’s general election. We wanta Labour government, as the only viablealternative to the Tories, but we wantunions and working-class communitycampaigns to fight for a set of policiesradically different to the one the currentLabour leaders are likely to deliver.policy. How far the Labour leaders will goin government depends how muchpressure they feel under. The weaker thepressure, the more confident they willfeel to govern as straightforward neo-liberals, carrying on with Tory austerity.The greater the pressure, the less free

they will feel to do thatUnions, and other campaigners, have

been able to put pressure on Labour tochange their policy as structural linksexist between the Labour Party and theorganised working class.

The lengths to which Labour’s leadersare still going to try and undermine, andultimately to sever, those links, bydisenfranchising the collective unionvoice within the Labour Party, shows thatthey still see the Labour-union link as athreat and potential challenge.

We wish to use those links topromote socialist ideas, such as arailway system run by the state on thebasis of the needs of the population,not the profit it can provide.

Back Findlay/Clark!Neil Findlay MSP and Katy Clark MPare standing for the leadership anddeputy leadership of the ScottishLabour Party.

Both of them are committed torebuilding electoral support for Labourby a return to “the timeless Labourvalues of community, solidarity,fairness and justice.” They wantLabour to adopt policies to attackpoverty, unemployment, exploitation inthe workplace, and health and wealthinequalities.

The Blairite candidate for theleadership position, Jim Murphy MP,wants Labour to continue with thesame programme of austerity-lite,letting the Tories set the agenda.

Neil and Katy have won nominationsfrom Unison, Unite, GMB, UCATT,ASLEF and TSSA. RMT, despite nolonger being affiliated to Labour, hasalso declared support for theircampaign.

This is a key opportunity to con-front supporters of austerity in thelabour movement head on.

99

In 2009, East Coast Mainline wastaken out of the hands of privatecompanies and effectivelyrenationalised.

Successive franchises had been bailedout by central government, so the routeis now run by the state-owned DirectlyOperated Railways (DOR). It is the onlypart of the mainline railway to be run bythe state rather than for profit. Twoprivate companies failed, but as anationalised railway, East Coast hasbeen successful. DOR claims lessfunding from the treasury than any of theprivately-run franchises, and hasreturned over £1b into the treasury sinceit was established. East Coast isconsistently at the top of passengersatisfaction surveys.

The Tory government are not takingthe success of this limitedrenationalisation lying down. They intendto pass the East Coast back into theprivate sector. They want as little of theeconomy as possible to be excludedfrom the rule of profit. Everything shouldbe making someone money. Theexperience of the failed privatisation ofthe East Coast line and the success ofDOR demonstrates quite starkly just how

inefficient private companies are atrunning our railways. Privatisation has,from an organisational point of view, setthe industry back over half a century.

Twice in recent years the Labour Partyconference has voted overwhelmingly tosupport the renationalisation of therailways, in 2005 and 2013. The Labourleadership have been more than happyto publicly explain that, despite thesevotes, Labour will not actually adopt apolicy in favour of renationalisation.

Following the 2013 vote, however, thepressure on the leadership fromrenationalisation campaigners forced afudged compromise. The leadership’sofficial policy is that the franchisingsystem will continue, and bids willcontinue to be considered from privatecompanies, but in addition public bodieswill be able to bid to run sections of therailway as well. The effect would be topossibly replicate DOR on other routesthan the East Coast.

This proposal would obviously fall wellshort of renationalisation. Even if theentire railway network was run by DOR,at some point we would still be stuck withthe inefficiencies of the attribution of

Can we force Labour torenationalise the railway?

In the day to day functioning ofcapitalist society, workers areexploited. On an individual basisworkers are weak and cannot fightback against the bosses so we haveformed trades unions – organisationswhere workers combine together tofight for better conditions.

Workers have common interests –better pay, better working conditions –around which we can unite in tradesunions. The only power we have is inour numbers, we are strong together.

The purpose of trades unions is to fightfor the betterment of workers within thesystem and many unions fall into anacceptance of the capitalist order. Tradesunions also build up a bureaucracy - alayer of officials, often unelected, whichcan act as a brake on struggle, and seetheir role as perpetuating the union as aset of structures (offices, finances, etc.),rather than as a weapon in the hands ofits members.

So how we fight better for the workingclass is not simply a case of electingbetter leaders (although of course weshould do that) but of organising the rankand file workers from the bottom up.

Off The Rails supporters in the unionscampaign to make them fight moreeffectively for their members – and tomake their decision making processesmore democratic.

But, by themselves, unions cannotoverthrow capitalism. As organisationsbased at the centre of capitalist

exploitation, the workplace, they are thebasic and fundamental organisations ofworking-class self-defence and counter-offence. But class struggle takes placeon political and ideological terrains aswell as on the industrial front. Ultimatelyin order to change society we needpolitical action as well as economic classstruggle.

Workers need political organisations aswell as industrial ones. Socialists whobelieve that unions can be both industrialorganisations and the bodies throughwhich workers can fight for politicalpower are called “syndicalists”. Off TheRails admires and is inspired by thelegacy of many syndicalists, includingJim Larkin, Tom Mann, Victor Griffuehles,Bill Haywood, and others (look them up!).But we believe history shows us thatworkers are at our most effective andpowerful when we can organise throughpolitical groups as well as unions.

“Trades Unions work well ascentres of resistance against the

encroachments of capital. They failpartially from an injudicious use of

their power. They fail generally fromlimiting themselves to a guerilla war

against the effects of the existingsystem, instead of simultaneously

trying to change it, instead of usingtheir organised forces as a lever for

the final emancipation of the workingclass that is to say the ultimateabolition of the wages system.”(Marx, Wages, Price and Profit)

Marxism At Work:What are TradeUnions?

58

The “Keep the guard on the train”Facebook page has not been set up byany union official and yet it’s beensuccessful.

OTR: Workers should not have to takepay or job cuts in order to reducefares: lower fares should come fromhigher government funding – ideallypublic ownership! Have you had muchsuccess in getting passengers to seeyou’re on their side?The public get the fact that it’s not safefor it to be driver-only. The public hasn’tfallen for the idea that it will be cheaper ifTOCs get rid of the guards.

Northern Rail hasn’t helped itself getpublic support for its plans by introducinga new evening peak fare. We delivered10,000 signed postcards to the DfT.We’ve got so much of the public on ourside – that’s why MPs have signed theEDM.

OTR: What’s next? What do you thinkit will take to win this campaign?The RMT needs to share information withus about other parts of the rail networkthat are threatened with DOO.

For example, I never rememberreading in any union literature that someparts of Scotrail have gone driver only.We need to know the situation aroundthe country and work together.Knowledge is power and the RMT needsto share it!

ASELF’s General Secretary came toour recent lobby of Parliament and saidthat they don’t want DOO. We need towork with ASLEF to do more.

At the minute, until the announcementof who has won the franchise in May,we’re not really sure exactly what thebosses are doing to do. We just need tokeep up the campaign and be prepared.

The Labour Party doesn’t seem to belistening. At the moment, Labour says itwill go with the decision of Rail North, the

Passenger Transport Executive, which isa devolved arm of the Department forTransport, working in partnership with theDfT.

Instead, Labour should be listeningto the unions and the public.

Traincrew on Northern Rail and,presumably, in other TOCs/FOCswill have seen the blue rectangularstickers in driving cabs bearing theASLEF and British Transport Policeemblems.

These stickers give a list of stepsthat a driver should take in the event oftheir train striking a person. Thelist includes obvious things likecontacting the signaller and the BTP“Fatality Hotline”. What it does notinclude is that the driver should informthe guard.

It is true that not all trains have aguard but that can be coveredusing appropriate wording. Where aguard is present, surely they are theperson best placed to assist the driverand passengers in what is a horriblesituation? Surely, as someone jointlyresponsible for the safety of the train,they should be first to know?

ASLEF’s charter states itsopposition to any extension ofDriver Only Operation. If it isserious about this, surely itshouldn’t write guards out of one ofthe situations where drivers needthem most.

Northern Rail drivers: fight DOO!

7

Keep the guardon the train!Moving to “Driver Only Operation”(DOO) is a key recommendation of theMcNulty Report, commissioned by thelast Labour government andenthusiastically taken up by theTories.

TOCs like Northern Rail andTransPennine Express are alreadymoving towards DOO (see pages 10-11).

But workers are fighting back. A guardon Northern Rail, who has been activelyinvolved in the “Keep the Guard on theTrain” campaign, spoke to Off the Rails.OTR: Can you tell us a bit about whatyou’ve been involved in locally and ona national level?Locally, we’ve organised to go out andspeak to the public for an hour at a timeonce or twice a month. Most of the time,it’s not even been reps, it’s just peoplefrom depots, who have come out tocampaign.

Each time, we’ve got a couple ofhundred signatures. Often, the public hascome up to us; they have seen the tableand asked what it’s about.

We’ve been down to the Departmentfor Transport and recently to a lobby ofParliament. After the lobby, we had ameeting. The Shadow Transport Minister,Mary Creagh (who got moved toInternational Development the day afterour meeting) got a lot of heckling. A lot ofpeople questioned her as she is the MPfor Wakefield.

We’re up to 54 MPs’ signatures on theEarly Day Motion; 52 Labour and 2 LibDems. A lot of the Labour shadowministers won’t sign it, as they say theycan’t sign EDMs.

OTR: You say a lot of people involvedin the campaign have been unionmembers from your depots. What is itabout this issue that has motivatednot just the reps, but new people, toget involved?They’re not going to sack us, they’ll justdowngrade us so we’ll not be safetycritical anymore. But still, a lot of our staffhave realised that there is a seriouschance that this could happen. The onlyway out is by fighting, not sitting theredoing nothing.

Here in the north, we’re very awarethat in other jobs, we’re not going to getpaid the amount we’re on for the hourswe do; we’re not going to get as good ajob again.

Support for the RMT is growing. Forexample, Sheffield guards are all nowwearing RMT ties for the first time, toshow their support for the union.

OTR: How easy has it been to get theRMT to produce the t-shirts andpostcards and to put resources intothe campaign? The officer responsible for the campaignused to be a guard until relativelyrecently. Although he’s a union officernow, he still remembers what it’s like tobe in our situation. He’s been killinghimself, running around, sendinginformation and materials out to us.

The campaign has not relied on the“official” channels of communicationwithin the union, e.g. branch circulars.

It’s been done by phonecalls, textmessages, the officer sending outupdates and asking us to pass them on.

6

off the railsThese are proposed rule changes forsubmission by RMT branches to the2015 AGM. To get on the AGM agenda,eight branches need to submit the rulechanges. Please consider submittingthese rule changes to your Decemberor January branch meeting. To readthe existing union rule book, visitrmt.org.uk/about/rmt-rule-book

Rule change no. 1.: Longer period to submit AGM amendments

RULE 3, GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION: ANNUAL AND SPECIALGENERAL MEETINGSClause 5: delete “8th April” and insert “1st April”delete “first Thursday in May”and insert “8th May”

Rule change no. 2: A bigger AGM

RULE 13, BALLOT AND ELECTION PROCEDURESClause 17: delete “1300” and insert “500”Clause 18: delete “election by the electoral area to which it belongs. Only onemember of a Branch can attend an Annual of Special General Meeting as adelegate.”Insert “every 500 branch members or part thereof. A branch is automaticallyentitled to one Annual General Meeting delegate for every 500 members andits subsequent block vote in any elections to decide the remainingArea/Region’s delegates will be reduced by 500 votes for every automaticdelegate it previously gained.”Clause 21: delete “the member who received the largest number of votes in arecount of the ballot papers in the group in which the vacancy occurs.”And insert “a member from that delegate’s branch. In the event of there beingno member from that branch willing to be a delegate then the delegate willcome from the branch in the Area/Region which received the largest numberof votes in the ballot without getting a delegate.”

Rule change no. 3: “Dispute Advisory Committees”

RULE 22, TRADES DISPUTESAdd new Clause 11 and renumber subsequent Clauses11. “In the event of a trade dispute, the Executive shall recognise a DisputeAdvisory Committee elected by and from the members involved in the dispute.The Dispute Committee shall organise amongst members to maximise theeffectiveness of industrial action, and shall have the right to submit to theExecutive (or General Grades Committee or Shipping Committee, asappropriate) resolutions concerning the conduct of the dispute, timing andform of industrial action. The Executive will seek the view of the DisputeAdvisory Committee on any new offer received from the employer beforemaking a decision about it. The Executive retains the sole power to make alldecisions regarding the dispute, as outlined in the rest of this rule.”

Rule change no. 4: Disabled Members' Advisory Committee

RULE 12A.1. Add 'a National Disabled Members Advisory Committee'Add 6:The National Disabled Members Advisory Committee shall deal withitems relating to Black and Ethnic Minority members, submitted by Branchesand Regional Councils. The Committee will not seek to determine Unionpolicy, and its reports shall be submitted via the General Secretary to theEqual Rights Sub-Committee.Renumber subsequent clauses.

Rule change no. 5: More power to equalities committees

RULE 12A Throughout Rule, delete "Advisory".Clause 1. Delete "Each Committee to meet three times per year, to advise theCouncil of Executives on matters germane to these Committees." Replacewith "Each Committee will meet three times per year. Each Committee willadvise the Council of Executives, and organise activities which are in line withunion policy, on matters germane to that Committee."Clause 5. Add at end "following consultation with the Committee."Clause 7. Delete "the matters to be dealt with by each Conference will bedetermined by Branches and Regional Councils, who will be invited to submitresolutions for consideration." and replace with "the matters to be dealt with byeach Conference will be determined by the Committee, and will includeresolutions submitted by Branches and Regional Councils."Throughout Rule, replace "Liaison" with "Conference Organising".

If you submit these rule changes to your RMT branch, pleasewrite to us at offtherails@workersliberty.org to let us know.