Tube strikes banned by High Court: RMT backs down
By a railworker
In a last minute intervention before planned strikes over the New Year weekend, London Underground workers were banned from taking action when a High Court judge granted LUL management an injunction against the RMT.
The judge ruled that the RMT’s successful ballot, held in the summer, had effectively expired because of a several months gap since action was last taken. In effect the ruling penalised the RMT for attempting to further the dispute through negotiation rather than maintaining its strike programme.
Despite an attempt by the left minority on the RMT Executive to call action regardless of the court decision, the RMT agreed to call off the planned strikes and will now re-ballot its LUL members. It is important that the ballot is won and action called rapidly - the first LUL workers are due to be handed over to the private sector in February.
Once again the whole question of the RMT’s sponsorship of John Prescott and other MPs has been thrown into question. Clearly for most LUL workers this is no longer an issue - they cannot understand why sponsorship is continuing. However, the RMT Executive remains equivocal.
Called upon to implement a resolution agreed at the RMT AGM last summer to write to the sponsored MPs demanding they support Union policy and oppose the privatisation of London Underground the Executive majority backed down - for fear of breaching parliamentary privilege!
Twenty years ago, the then General Secretary Sid Weighell was called before parliament for daring to demand that NUR sponsored MPs follow union policy under the last Labour government. Such a radical step, it appears, cannot be considered today.
With the three most consistent left members of the Executive finishing their term of office the need to organise rank and file pressure on the Union leadership has become more urgent. That the left, if properly organised, can be effective was shown with the results of the RMT President’s election.
The main left candidate, Mick Atherton, came within 45 votes of winning the election. This is clearly the best national election result the left has had, outside of the victory by Bob Crow four years ago, elected as Assistant General Secretary in special circumstances against a discredited Shipping officer.
Bizarrely, the Morning Star managed to claim that Mick lost the election for the left by splitting the vote and thereby stopping the "real" left challenger from being elected. The fact that their candidate trailed in third 2,500 votes behind Mick was neither here nor there.
However, the battle for control is by no means over. Elections for the General Secretary and one of the Assistant General Secretary positions are now underway.
Greg Tucker and Pat Sikorski, left candidates for the two places, have already received significant nominations from Branches across the country wanting to see a real change in the way the Union is organised.
With voting in February and March the task now is to make Knapp and Co. pay the price for their failure to organise real resistance to the attacks being made on RMT members from their privatised bosses and the New Labour government.