This year’s RMT young members’ conference was held in Wigan recently, on 24-25 February, with over 40 delegates present. The conference was packed with discussions on the political landscape, cross-union coordination, and international solidarity.
The session ‘redressing privatisation’ started a good discussion on linking political demands to the day-to-day activity of our union.
Delegates understood that nationalisation on its own is not a magic solution to the problems on the railways, but must be combined with workers’ control and planning.
Many raised concerns that Starmer’s nationalisation plans would bail out ‘unprofitable’ private companies and act as a cover to pass more cuts.
I suggested that the leadership should publish material exposing the bosses’ profits, privatisation, and the role of the government during recent national strikes.
When the bosses say they do not have the money to meet our demands, some officials reply: “It’s their problem, their responsibility to find the money”. I explained that we should instead demand that the bosses open the books and let us propose alternative budgets.
This point was well received. Inspecting the rail companies’ figures contributed to the success of the campaign against ticket office closures last year.
The founding of the Revolutionary Communist Party has also not gone unnoticed by young RMT members. Many have no confidence in Starmer, but are also struggling to find a ‘political home’.
We are founding the RCP precisely to offer a home to all young workers who want to organise and fight to bring their class to power. If you are one of these, then join your party!
Nick Oung, RMT South London rail branch (personal capacity)
Scottish college bosses threaten to withhold all pay
Members of EIS-FELA in Scotland have begun industrial action short of strike (ASOS), following a successful ballot over pay negotiations. Their tactics of choice include a marking boycott and ‘work to rule’.
In response, colleges across Scotland have threatened to withhold the pay of all involved in ASOS, and have stated that all contracted work carried out by lecturers will be ‘deemed voluntary’!
This has caused outrage – and rightly so. EIS-FELA general secretary Andrea Bradley has written to employers demanding this threat be withdrawn.
EIS-FELA members at Scottish colleges are also set to strike on 29 February. Importantly, this will be alongside more than 2,000 support staff in further education, organised in Unison, affecting over 20 colleges across Scotland.
Unison have noted that staff voted “overwhelmingly” in favour of action. This shows the pent-up frustration felt by workers in response to college bosses’ failure to adequately increase wages.
College Employers Scotland has proposed a “final offer” of an average pay rise of nearly 16% for support staff going back to September 2022, and a 21.5% increase for support staff earning less than £25,000.
College bosses are pressuring workers to accept this offer. They are trying to divide the unions, and are refusing to apply this increase until Unite, GMB, and Unison have all accepted. Only Unite and GMB have done so, so far.
We urge Unison members not to give in. United action with EIS-FELA shows the way forward. If the bosses fail to give in, then the next step is to escalate.
Daniel McLaughlin, Glasgow Communists
Birmingham council cuts: Workers meet to discuss fight back
Last week, on 22 February, around 100 local workers met to discuss the fightback against Birmingham City Council’s decision to cut 600 jobs, raise council tax by 21%, and slash social services by £300m – and to do all of this with zero democratic accountability!
The poorest workers in the city will face the brunt of these attacks. It is no surprise, then, that the atmosphere in the meeting was one of anger, frustration, and despair towards the relentless cuts imposed by both the Tory government and local Labour-run city council.
Speakers talked passionately about their experiences working for the council, the NHS, local libraries, and schools; and about how they rely on the already stretched-thin services the council provides.
We heard how the proposed cuts to children and young people’s services would put the population of the youngest city in Europe in peril, and how closing libraries would limit access to education and other community services for hundreds of thousands.
Without a militant fightback, this ‘city of a thousand trades’ will be butchered in a thousand ways.
Birmingham Communists are circulating a model motion, putting forward a strategy and programme to fight these attacks, to make the bosses pay, and to remove the unelected commissioners who are being paid £1,100 a day to carry out these cuts.
Ellie Jeffery, Birmingham Communists
Model motion
This union branch notes:
- Birmingham Council has declared effective bankruptcy and handed in its section 114 notice.
- Local democracy has been completely suspended and the city is now run by unelected commissioners. These commissioners are paid £1100 a day.
- So far, £300 million in cuts has been announced, with 600 workers to lose their jobs and council tax to be hiked to 21%.
- Council services have been outsourced to private companies, who make extreme profits for inadequate services.
- £150 million per year is spent by the council in interest payments to sate the profits of the big banks.
- This is not an isolated incident, as 1 in 5 councils are on the verge of declaring bankruptcy.
This union believes:
- It is completely undemocratic that unelected commissioners are now running a city of over one million people.
- The ‘dented shield’ approach by Labour has completely failed.
- That the capitalists should be the ones to pay for this crisis, not the workers.
- A Starmer Labour government will be unwilling to resolve the crisis of council funding and actively supports these decisions.
- The only thing we can rely on, therefore, are the organisations of the working class.
- That the workers of Birmingham, united, can defeat these attacks.
This union branch resolves to campaign for:
- The ceasing of all debt payments to the capitalists. The bankers and billionaires have bled us dry for long enough!
- All council services to be brought back in house, expropriating the profiteers without compensation.
- An end to all asset selling. All privatised council assets should be taken back into local authority ownership, as well as those required to run decent services.
- Every council official to be paid no more than the average wage of a skilled worker.
- Our union to work with other unions across the city, to organise a full city-wide general strike in demand of the above programme.
Liverpool Museum workers on strike
Museum workers in Liverpool have declared that staff morale is extinct. Matt, from the PCS branch committee that organises these workers, told us why:
“We are in the second week of eight weeks of strike action against the employer, in protest against them denying the £1,500 cost-of-living payment that was agreed with the government in June last year.”
Included in the artefacts entrusted to these museums are items showing the history of the labour movement. It is therefore all the more scandalous that National Museums Liverpool (NML) management are screwing over their workers. This irony has not been lost on local trade unionists.
“We are seeing 50, 60, 70 people on our picket lines. They are vibrant, fun, exciting”, Matt said. “We are museum workers. We know how to put on a party. We know the importance of culture.
“We look after priceless objects every day in our museums”, Matt continued. “But the most important thing, the most priceless thing NML has here is the staff. It is time they respected that staff and paid them the £1,500.”
The strike involves 230 PCS members. They have shown their determination to win by the size of the picket lines.
The strike also includes workers at the Walker Art gallery, where ‘Social Murder: Grenfell in Three Parts’ – painted by communist artist Nico Baldion – was exhibited. Nico sent this message of support, which was read at the picket line:
“Victory to the strikers. Without you, the cultural workers, there is no Walker Gallery. I’ve seen firsthand your dedication; your hard work and love for the art. But enthusiasm is too often exploited.
“I know some of you will be artists in your own right too. If art is going to be more than a plaything for the rich, then we need the time, the job stability, and the pay to develop and create. Solidarity!”
The strike continues until 14 April – unless management sees sense and pays up!
Mike Hogan, Liverpool Communists
All are welcome on the picket line. Messages of support/donations can be sent to: PCS@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk. Or click here to sign their petition.
UCU HQ block Palestine motion from being discussed
In recent months, University of Leeds UCU branch is proud to have attended Palestine solidarity rallies with our banner held high, and to have fought victimisation of pro-Palestine academics.
But now we face a new struggle, as our university welcomes the return of an IDF volunteer!
Rabbi Zecharia Deutsch serves as chaplain for Jewish students at the University of Leeds and at universities across Yorkshire. Last year, he left to fight in the IDF.
Deutsch staunchly defends the Israeli state’s barbaric actions in Gaza. In one video seen by students, he says: “No one could deny that Israel is dealing with this war with the utmost morality and good ethics…There is evil and there is good, and what Israel is trying to do is to destroy the evil, which is the most moral thing possible”.
This has caused outrage among students and staff. Sister Farhat, the Muslim chaplain, has resigned from her post. The university responded by claiming he’s subcontracted, so they have no ability to intervene.
They were happy to intervene against students protesting his employment, however, when they deployed security to disperse the crowd!
These deplorable actions by the bosses led Leeds UCU members to table an emergency motion for an EGM, criticising the university’s defence of Deutsch, and stating that the university must change subcontractor.
Scandalously, our branch has been blocked from discussing this motion – not by the university, but by our own union!
We received a curt email saying that our EGM was cancelled, upon ‘legal advice’ from UCU HQ. Upon querying this, I was told that they said: “The motion was potentially libel, and individuals and the union could possibly be sued.” On what grounds was not disclosed.
This is an outrageous trampling over basic union democracy – sadly, now all too common in our union.
Leeds Communists call on UCU branches to pass motions in solidarity with our branch. We must denounce the trampling of democracy within our union, and state our opposition to the continued hiring of Zechariah Deutsch.
Ultimately, our union should be leading the struggle against the presence of all imperialists and capitalists on campus: from IDF volunteers and British Army recruiters, to arms manufacturers and the big banks.
We must fight for a higher education system run by staff and students, in the interests of staff and students.
Greg Andrews, University of Leeds UCU (personal capacity)
Factory death in Halewood
We recently heard of the tragic death of a worker at a company in the supply chain to the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Halewood. This worker was found dead on site at the factory near Merseyside.
The Communist has learned that the company’s immediate response to the discovery of the workers’ body was allegedly to speed up production, since they knew that they would have to stop for an investigation!
The unscrupulous bosses, as ever, didn’t want to disrupt production and lose any profits.
We are saddened and disgusted by this news. We cannot think how his workmates must feel about being forced to work, instead of being allowed to come to terms with this tragedy.
This horrible episode shows starkly the brutally inhumane nature of capitalism. Let us recommit to overthrowing this barbaric system.
The Communist readers in Merseyside
Bastard boss of the week
Mick Lynch recently exposed “numerous disturbing [cases] of major underpayments of wages for rail maintenance staff throughout the country”. I am one such case.
After a year banging my head against the wall, and half a year’s grievance, I finally received over £3,000 in owed wages, including almost 50 hours overtime pay.
My rep told me he never saw a case like mine, where payroll so obstinately refused to acknowledge me, even though I sent unquestionable evidence.
I told him that few apprentices are organised, or ever report their cases. Payroll therefore believes that they can get away with anything, inventing all sorts of rules and producing illegible payslips. Most of us don’t even have copies of our full contract!
Apprentices are cheap, raw material for exploitation. I probably fared better than most, because I stuck to my guns and I’m in the union.
