THE RMT transport union last Friday called off strike action by more than 2,000 Metronet Tube maintenance workers has been after the company this withdrew plans to transfer RMT members and posts to other companies.
In a dramatic about-turn Metronet informed RMT this afternoon that posts and individuals it intended to transfer to Bombardier would now remain in-house, and that it would not bring forward any further plans for outsourcing.
The company also agreed that escalator refurbishment would be brought back in house, and that it would also enter talks aimed at bringing cleaning contracts and lift refurbishment back in-house, and at ending all biometric booking on and off“This is the sensible outcome we sought for from the start, and it means quite simply that there will be no outsourcing of our Metronet members jobs,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said.
“Our Metronet members deserve congratulating for standing solidly together to defend their organisation, jobs and conditions and to prevent further dangerous fragmentation.
“Their stand, in the face of hostile media attention, has been vindicated by the outcome of this dispute.
“I would also like to thank the other Tube grades who stood shoulder to shoulder with their engineering colleagues,” Bob Crow said.
The RMT also issued a statement welcoming a suggestion to re-integrate the rail network in Scotland.
As reports emerged of talks between Network Rail and Scottish Labour leaders over the possibility of the government-underwritten company taking over Scotrail operations, RMT renewed its call for a moratorium on the failed private-franchise system.
“We have argued from the start that fragmentation was the fundamental fault-line opened up by rail privatisation, and re-uniting track and train under Network Rail makes sound sense,” Bob Crow said.
“For the first time in a decade it would bring train and track back under a single, directly accountable body with a single command structure, and could provide the blueprint for ending the nightmare of rail privatisation once and for all.
“It would also mean that the huge subsidies going into rail operations would be spent on improving services rather than on lining shareholders’ pockets.
“Bringing the industry back together again will make it clear exactly who is responsible and will end the ugly spectacle of legal buck-passing in the aftermath of the disasters that privatisation has brought about.
“Public money should no longer be wasted on a franchise system that is discredited, inefficient, costly and dangerous, and it is time to bring the failed experiment to an end.”
