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Under RMT's rule book, a member could only stand for election as a delegate to the union's Annual General Meeting (AGM) once s/he had been a member for five years. Many union branches felt that this rule was unfair and out-of-date, and submitted a proposal to last Friday's Special Meeting to reduce the qualifying period to three years.

I am pleased to report that, following a lively debate and a close vote, the proposal was passed. Printed below is the speech I made in proposing the rule change, which outlines the reasons and arguments behind the change.

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It seems as though a sensible decision has been made, as it was announced this week that Metronet will remain under the management of LUL. It's recent transition to LUL had been on a temporary basis but will now be ongoing. The Department for Transport has a press release on this issue:

Unite are to ballot their members at LU over the current pay offer. Unite have 600 members in LU, working in areas such as maintenance and safety. Unite members recently decided two to one that a ballot for industrial action was the way forward.

Unite say their ballot will coincide with the RMT’s ballot of its members on the pay issue. Unite anticipate that any resulting industrial action would be co-ordinated with the RMT.

On Wednesday 21st October the Bakerloo branch recruitment and retention team hit the Oxford Circus group, dishing out the latest newsletter, badges, keyrings and other goodies. We got to talk to people about the upcoming ballot for strike action and signed two new members up to the RMT.

I just found this video over at the RMT website about the importance of all grades sticking together. I started work with LU on the stations and now work as a train driver. I'm often asked why I don't now join a single grades union and this video states clearly the answer to that and why we need to stand together.

Update: A 'Charter Convention' is being held in Camden on Saturday 21st November, Bob Crow among others will be speaking. Details here.

I just signed up to The People's Charter. A charter laying out a vision of what I would describe to be a fairer Britain. The charter lays out a number of aims. These include tight regulation of the banking sector and fairer taxation in order to ensure wealth is distributed more fairly, decent homes for all, renationalisation of key services such as transport, water and energy and other key areas where intervention could close the wealth gap in society and ensure everyone has a decent standard of living.

I use RSS or 'Really Simple Syndication' to keep an eye on certain areas of this site - be it news about London Underground disputes, or blog entries from my rep. However, many people don't know what it is or how to use it - so I thought it may be of interest or use to some of you for me to have a go at explaining it here.

It's good to see various trade union leaders saying they will be fighting for their members whoever is running the country, but perhaps they should start now. Most of the recent disputes in the oil refineries, occupations at Visteon etc were started by rank and file with the leaderships being forced to support the workers.

Big adverts in the Morning Star stating how many members you have and pleading for the government not to cut public services and please be progressive do nothing. Fighting back does.

At last.
The CMO (formerly better known as metronet) have finally decided to get their act together and try and sort this problem out.
They are going to adopt a scientific approach to it.
Over the next few weeks expect to see many operatives in bright orange Hi-Vis at the usual locations, Padd, Picc,CX.
They will first gather as much information as possible.

As a supporter of the four rule changes to be discussed at the forthcoming RMT Special General Meeting, I have written this guide to the proposals and how they would improve the democracy of the union.

More time for branches to submit amendments

RULE 3, GOVERNMENT OF THE UNION - ANNUAL AND SPECIAL GENERAL MEETINGS

(i) Clause 5:

delete "8th April" and insert "1st April"

delete "first Thursday in May" and insert "8th May"