worker climate project

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RMT members are preparing for a repeat of the determined strike action that told the Tories that “the working class is back.”

Assistant general secretary, John Leach, addressing a union conference in Penzance on April 25, said he always felt “pessimistic” about tortuous negotiations on the 2023 pay and terms and conditions, which are due to end at the beginning of May.

John told delegates to be prepared for strike action being called after a “report back” on May 15. He said: “We will probably end up with a final offer on the table, some of which is appalling, some of which is slightly less appalling, and some of it a little dreadful…the NEC decided, last week, we should be preparing ourselves for disputes across all the TOCs (train operating companies) going into the summer – it’s a distinct possibility.”

John was uncompromising on the union’s stance of all going into battle together. This was in response to questions from some delegates, who wondered if the best tactic might be to call sectional strikes.

Recalling that, in 2022, the union “went in together and we came out together,” he said: “we will not allow the employer to divide us at all on those lines.” He said the union negotiators are under orders “not to bring back an offer which separates grades on terms and conditions and wages.”

I was there in my role as president of Cornwall Trades Union Council. I spoke on two themes – the desperate need for a new party of the working class and my thoughts on the need for unions to call political strikes and not to confine themselves to pay and terms and conditions.

I asked: “Who here really believes that, within the lifetime of a Starmer-led Labour government, that they’ll be working for a publicly-owned, publicly-accountable rail service run and managed by the workforce?”

John, in his speech, said he “welcomed” that day’s announcement that a Labour government would re-nationalise the railways. We’ll just have to see how that pans out.

A resolution from Liverpool 5 branch to the conference illustrated the need for unions like the RMT to strike to achieve a publicly-owned rail network. It noted new rolling stock bring brought into service across the country looks like it’s with the implementation of driver-only trains in mind.