RMT

‘Outsourcing on our railways is a racket’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/outsourcing-our-railways-racket

 RMT members in Manchester, August 14, 2025

RMT demands Labour deliver on its promise to start the ‘biggest wave of insourcing in a generation’

RAIL union RMT held a mass meeting in Manchester today as part of its national campaign to end outsourcing on Britain’s railways.

The meeting heard from RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey, regional organiser Steve Shaw, Salford Labour MP Rebecca Long Bailey and North West TUC secretary Jay McKenna.

In a recent report, the union warned that despite government plans to bring rail franchises in-house and create the new publicly owned body Great British Railways, a “hidden layer” of contractors continues to profit from the exploitation of thousands of workers.

The report warned that such companies make their profits by keeping workers on low-paid, inferior or casual contracts, leaving them struggling to get by.

RMT argues that all rail jobs, from cleaning to catering, engineering to station services, should be brought back in-house to reverse decades of outsourcing that have driven down pay, eroded conditions and undermined safety.

The union is also pressing the Labour government to honour its pledge to deliver the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation.

Mr Dempsey said: “Outsourcing on our railways is a racket.

“Private firms are cashing in while cleaners, security staff and track workers, among others, are left struggling, often on low pay, insecure contracts and unsafe conditions.

“We have overworked cleaners, for example, working while sick, as companies like Churchill hand millions to shareholders.

“It’s totally indefensible and a waste of taxpayers’ money.”

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Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/outsourcing-our-railways-racket

Continue Reading‘Outsourcing on our railways is a racket’

Unions walking a tight-rope with ‘right-wing’ Labour government, FBU leader says

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-walking-a-tight-rope-with-right-wing-labour-government-fbu-leader-says

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer during his speech and press conference in the Rose Garden at 10 Downing Street, London, August 27, 2024.

Union figures weigh in on Starmer’s government at Morning Star’s TUC fringe event

UNIONS must walk a tight-rope dealing with a right-wing Labour government, a senior trade unionist has said.

TUC president and Fire Brigades Union general secretary Matt Wrack made the statement at the Morning Star’s fringe meeting at the TUC Congress today.

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RMT president Alex Gordon said many of Labour’s economic policies “bear an uncanny resemblance to those of its defeated and demoralised Tory predecessors” and that Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s decision to keep Tory spending policies “means the same but worse, as society and the economy continue to deteriorate from the cumulative impact of austerity.”

Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union general secretary Fran Heathcote said it was “an absolute disgrace” that the government would not lift the widely condemned two-child benefit cap and suspended seven Labour MPs for backing this in Parliament.

The Budget will be “the defining moment in the new government,” she added, saying: “Is it going to rebuild public services and living standards or will it unleash a new wave of austerity?”

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/unions-walking-a-tight-rope-with-right-wing-labour-government-fbu-leader-says

Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he's proud to be a red Tory.
Keir Starmer confirms that he is continuing Tory policies and that he’s proud to be a red Tory.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.
Keir Starmer says pensioners can freeze to death and poor children can starve and be condemned to failure and misery all their lives.

The dishonesty of Rachel Reeves

Continue ReadingUnions walking a tight-rope with ‘right-wing’ Labour government, FBU leader says

Public ownership campaigners urge Labour to go further and commit to renationalising rolling stock companies

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/public-ownership-campaigners-urge-labour-to-go-further-and-commit-to-renationalising-rolling-stock-companies/

Image of an East Coast train
An East Coast train at King’s Cross station

Labour announced this week that it will renationalise the railways, if elected. The party referred to the move as the ‘biggest overhaul to our railways in a generation.’

Under Labour’s proposals, train companies would be brought back into public ownership and run by a new body, Great British Railways, as their privatised contracts expire.

While the announcement has been broadly welcomed, with RMT general secretary Mick Lynch saying a publicly owned rail network is in the “best interests of railway workers, passengers and the taxpayer,” public ownership campaigners We Own It warn it doesn’t go far enough.

Following Labour’s announcement, Johnbosco Nwogbo, lead campaigner at public ownership campaign group We Own It, said it was time to “decommission the gravy train.”

“With delays and cancellations rife and some of the most expensive fares in Europe, polls show that over two thirds of us want our railways to be brought into public hands. Labour have rightly identified that the ownership of our public services will be a key issue for voters at this election.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/public-ownership-campaigners-urge-labour-to-go-further-and-commit-to-renationalising-rolling-stock-companies/

Continue ReadingPublic ownership campaigners urge Labour to go further and commit to renationalising rolling stock companies

RMT leader Mick Lynch gives Jeremy Corbyn general election backing

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Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68393822

The RMT Union has announced it will be supporting former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn at the next general election.

Mr Corbyn is the independent MP for Islington North – a seat he has held since 1983.

Last year, the 74-year-old was banned from standing for Labour, having been suspended from the parliamentary party over an antisemitism row in 2020.

RMT leader Mick Lynch said the union would back Mr Corbyn should he run for his seat again as an independent.

“We will support all sorts of people in this election, because we’re not affiliated,” Mr Lynch told the War on Want conference.

He added: “We will support Labour candidates. We will support socialist candidates.

“We will be supporting Jeremy Corbyn in the next election.”

The RMT became estranged from Labour in 2004 under Tony Blair’s leadership, meaning – unlike many other trade unions – it is free to support other candidates.

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https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68393822

Continue ReadingRMT leader Mick Lynch gives Jeremy Corbyn general election backing

Jeremy Corbyn: Ticket office closures are ‘unnecessary, cruel and simply wrong’

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/jeremy-corbyn-ticket-office-closures-are-unnecessary-cruel-and-simply-wrong/

Image of Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party
Jeremy Corbyn MP, former leader of the Labour Party

Jeremy Corbyn calls on Labour to commit to nationalising the transport industry in exclusive interview

Jeremy Corbyn slammed plans to close railway ticket offices as ‘cruel and simply wrong’ whilst calling on Labour to commit to renationalising the transport system, in an interview with LFF.

“What we need is a real, public and clear determination by the Labour Party, not just to bring the train operating companies back into public ownership, but all the other aspects of the rail industry into public ownership,” said Corbyn.

“We need a publicly owned and publicly run transport system.”

Plans to close 1,000 ticket offices in Britain have led to fresh calls to renationalise the rail system, as a whistle-blower admitted the plan was in fact about cost cutting, as supposed to ‘digitalising’ the future of travel which the government claimed. Over 2,300 jobs are being put at risk by the plan.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/09/jeremy-corbyn-ticket-office-closures-are-unnecessary-cruel-and-simply-wrong/

Continue ReadingJeremy Corbyn: Ticket office closures are ‘unnecessary, cruel and simply wrong’