Union leaders reiterate call for nationalised rail
Senior union leaders have lined up to call for a re-nationalisation of the UK’s railway system.
With the issue due to be debated today at the TUC conference, and rail likely to be a hot topic at the upcoming Labour conference, unions leaders made it clear where they stand.
Despite the decision to close down Railtrack, and bring track maintenance back in house, the Government has made it clear that they are not prepared to considered re-nationalisation of the railways.
However, with many passenger groups complaining that there has been little improvement in the rail services, despite the vast amounts of money expended, the structure of the rail industry looks to be becoming an increasing political issue.
At a packed fringe meeting at the TUC conference in Brighton, the leader of the RMT, Bob Crow, said he wanted the re-nationalisation of the railways to go a step further than the pre-privatisation days of British Rail, and become a “proper nationalised industry”. For this to occur there must be a British Rail Board where passengers, employees and the Government were equally represented, he claimed.
Mr Crow called for firm commitments that the rail network was going to be brought back into public hands, along with London Underground. “We don’t want a slice of the cake, we want the entire bakery lock, stock and barrel,” he said.
Pointing out that the railway industry is broken up into a series of franchises, he said that to renationalise all that needed to be done was to “wait until the franchise finishes and take the keys off them.” He added that “we haven’t got to pay them a penny”.
He was joined in his calls for re-nationalisation by Gerry Doherty, TSSA general secretary; and Andy Reid, national organiser for ASLEF. With the TUC set to debate rail on Thursday, Mr Reid challenged his colleagues to send a resounding message to the Labour party, that the rail industry was as bad as it was when Railtrack was in situ. And he urged them to campaign to “stop the greed and profiteering that’s taking place”.
Also speaking at the meeting, the TUC deputy general secretary, Frances O’Grady said the TUC backed the rail unions in their re-nationalisation campaign. She also congratulated them on their “brilliant campaign” to save the pension scheme for Network Rail employees.
John McDonnell MP, parliamentary convenor for the RMT, said a “critical breakthrough” had been achieved at the National Policy Forum on the issue of re-nationalisation with it now due to be debated on the floor of the Labour conference.
He called for a concerted campaign by trade unions from the branch level upwards, and in the constituencies by making it a General Election issue. If unions were “clear on principle and work effectively within the movement, we can win,” he concluded.
