Wish Rail of Tory anti union laws. A clear example of this is the problem we face in our current dispute over the safety role of train guards.
Guards' lobs
This spring, Railtrack announced that it proposed to effectively do away with train guards' safety role. Despite itself being privatised, Railtrack has the role of maintaining the Rule Book for all rail companies.
Behind all the obfuscation it is clearly the case that at least some, if not all, of the operating companies have been exerting pressure to get Railtrack to act on their behalf.
They want to be able to replace the guards with new employees whose first responsibility is collecting tickets, or selling cups of coffee rather than protecting passengers.
The RMT immediately launched a campaign to defend their members' jobs. But a legal industrial dispute with Railtrack is impossible - it employs no guards, who work for the train operators. In turn, these operating companies have declared that no dispute exists - they only work to the Rules laid down by Railtrack!
Only after some time and effort was it possible for the RMT to place itself in dispute. Industrial