Workers Liberty
http://www.workersliberty.org/story/2008/09/24/solidarity-3139.
Acid test for RMT as
key activist victimised

Tubeworkers: under pressure
Andy Littlechild, a well-known
local rep at Lillie Bridge and
activist on the “company council”
— the top relevant union body — was
suspended by the infrastructure company
Metronet on Tuesday 16 September, on
trumped-up charges.
The London Underground Engineering
and Fleet branches, and the RMT union
executive, have voted to ballot Metronet
workers for strike action. If Metronet is
allowed to get away with this, every union
rep across the network will be in danger.
The workers whom Andy directly works
with are reported as being very solid in
their determination to stop the victimisa-
tion. Success will depend on making sure
all workers across Metronet know the
issues. Leaflets are already being distrib-
uted to workplaces by reps and activists.
The spark was a local manager ’s arbi-
trary insistence on workers wearing hard
hats at all times. Andy was working on a
job with an agreed risk assessment not call-
ing for hard hats.
The manager wrote a new risk assess-
ment, deliberately shortcutting proper pro-
cedures and choosing to exclude the union.
Andy wrote to the manager saying that he
would stick with the established risk
assessment.
Management then staged an "audit" and
suspended Andy. Now higher-level man-
agement has seized on the case as a means
to bash the unions.
The RMT needs to look at how to fight
victimisations. It has two others on its
hands now, apart from Andy — Karl Niles
and Sarah Hutchins — and there have been
several recently, with mixed outcomes.
While station staff took two days of
strike action to demand Jerome Bowes'
reinstatement, Elephant & Castle drivers
voted not to join the action after a dirty
tricks campaign by management. Jerome
now awaits his Employment Tribunal, but
remains sacked.
Several cleaners have been sacked or
suspended following this year's successful
strike action.
Mo Makhboul's workmates voted by a
large majority to strike against his sacking,
but in insufficient numbers to make strike
action viable.
RMT was unable to successfully defend
its London Bridge rep, Gyles Henry, after
his workmates were divided as to whether
to take strike action.
Earlier this year, RMT abandoned
planned strikes in defence of sacked
Morden DMT Sarah Appleby.
There have been RMT successes, too.
This year, RMT won the reinstatement of
Mukesh Mahatma, after his Canary Wharf
colleagues voted to strike.
Last year, the union overturned the sack-
ing of a DLR Train Captain. And two years
ago, RMT's successful fight to defend driv-
ers Raj Nathvani and Les Bruty was a
model of how to fight victimisation.
Until about five years ago, it seemed that
RMT could defend its LUL members' jobs
at will. The turning point seems to have
been the case of Chris Barrett, the famous
“squash-playing driver” from Edgware
Road. His fellow drivers took two days'
strike action in his defence around
Christmas 2003, but LUL would not back
down, and even though Chris went on to
win his Unfair Dismissal claim at
Employment Tribunal, he did not get his
job back.
What had changed? LUL management.
They had become more belligerent, and
had a boss — Ken Livingstone — who was
determined to look tough against Tube
workers.
LUL bosses’ new aggression needs to be
matched by new determination from the
unions.