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Tag: RMT

  • Stop the War Scotland back rail unions’ stand on Palestine

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    https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/stop-war-scotland-back-rail-unions-stand-palestine

     Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan speaking at a march for Palestine in Liverpool to coincide with the Labour Party Conference, September 21, 2024

    ANTI-WAR campaigners in Scotland have sent solidarity to railway workers “making a stand for Palestine” and refusing to drive trains built by a firm complicit in Israeli war crimes.

    Stop the War Scotland joined rail unions RMT, Aslef and TSSA today in demanding that the Scottish government remove CAF from its shortlist of contractors to build ScotRail’s new fleet of suburban trains.

    The company has been listed on the United Nations human rights database for its role in running the Jerusalem Light Railway and helping expand it to territory seized by Israel.

    Aslef made clear that its members would refuse to drive CAF trains, a position now echoed by TSSA general secretary Maryam Eslamdoust as she urged the Scottish government to “think again.”

    …

    Article continues at https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/stop-war-scotland-back-rail-unions-stand-palestine

    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham admits to blatently lying and engaging in deception to become leader of the UK Labour Party and Prime Minister.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza's hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel's genocide.
    Keir Starmer objects to criticism of the IDF. He asks how could anyone object to them starving people to death, forced marches like the Nazis did, bombing Gaza’s hospitals and universities, mass-murdering journalists, healthworkers and starving people queuing for food, killing and raping prisoners and murdering children. He calls for people to stop obstructing his genocide for Israel. New Labour UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham continues Labour party policy of active support and complicity in Israel’s genocide.

  • ‘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.”

    …

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

    …

    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?”

    …

    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

  • 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.

    …

    https://leftfootforward.org/2024/04/public-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.

    …

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