As Northern Rail strike ballot opens RMT slams management lies and dirty tricks.
Publication Date: May 7 2013
As RMT begins balloting today on Northern Rail for strike action in an increasingly bitter dispute over the casualisation of core rail work in a bid by the company to undermine staff job security, pay and working conditions, the union has slammed a campaign of lies and dirty tricks by company managers designed to interfere in the internal balloting process.
Over the bank holiday weekend, Northern Rail management have been attempting to bully staff through a series of attacks on RMT union officials and a barrage of totally false propaganda.
The biggest lie of the bunch is that Northern Rail are only trialling the use of casual staff when the fact is that over a period of time they have escalated the use of agency workers into core areas of their business with the sole objective of being able to undercut pay and conditions while opening up the opportunity to hire and fire at will.
RMT is in no doubt that the company policy is to roll out the use of casual staff into all possible areas of their operations, effectively delivering skilled rail jobs on the lump, impacting on all permanent staff in the name of flexibility and profit. That is why RMT is balloting all members for strike action because every single employee is threatened by this introduction of wholesale casualisation by stealth.
The second big lie is that RMT wants the agency staff sacked. Nothing could be further from the truth. RMT wants the casual, low paid staff to be employed by the company on a permanent and secure basis and on decent terms and conditions. Our fight is not with the agency staff but with the companies that seek to exploit them as a weapon to undermine the permanent workforce and in the name of profit.
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:
It is disgraceful that Northern management, instead to sitting down with the union to address the issues at the heart of this dispute, have resorted to a campaign of smears, lies and personal attacks in a desperate attempt to influence the outcome of this secret trade union ballot.
There is rock-sold evidence of a deliberate and cynical drive to use casual, agency staff to undermine job security, pay and working conditions on Northern Rail and our members are furious that not only have the company refused to stop this practice but they are driving it forwards. Everyone in the workforce knows it because they can see it with their own eyes. Casualisation is now the policy of Northern as they seek to deliver core rail jobs on the lump and if it isnt stopped now there is no question they will seek to roll it out across all grades and that is why all members are being balloted gate line today, the rest tomorrow if we dont call a halt now.
RMTs demand is clear, an immediate end to Northern Rail casualising the workforce. If there is work that needs doing, it should be done by permanently employed staff on decent pay and conditions and not by an exploited, short-term workforce paid a pittance and denied the most basic of workplace benefits and who can be hired and fired at will in the name of pumping up profits. The future of all permanent jobs and working agreements is under threat and that is why RMT is calling for a massive Yes vote across all grades in this strike ballot.
ENDS
As a receiver of the one of the emails from our HR Director all the email from the director has done is further stirred things against the company.
This is could turn out to be a long and bitter dispute
I certainly hope it is resolved for everyone's sake