ATTENDANCE

• Bakerloo branch - Malcolm Taylor
• Camden no.3 branch -
• Central Line West branch - Vaughan Thomas (meeting chair), Stefan Melnyk, Vik Parmar
• DLR branch - Chris Ives, Les Sime
• East Ham branch -
• Finsbury Park branch - Glenroy Watson, Dean O'Hanlon, Frank Curtis, Will Reid, Dave Rayfield, Neil Cochrane, Gary Fitzpatrick, Derek Bishop
• LU Fleet branch -
• Hammersmith & City branch - Sandra Hunt, Josie Toussaint-Pinnock
• Jubilee South & East London Line branch - Jane Gwynn
• London Taxis branch -
• LU Engineering branch - Andy Littlechild, Lewis Peacock, Frank Murray, Jackie Darby
• Morden & Oval branch -
• Neasden branch - Adrian Rowe, Nigel Eivers
• Piccadilly & District West branch - Raj Vyas
• Retired Members' branch - Ted Richardson
• Stratford no.1 branch - Adrian Finney, Janine Booth (meeting secretary)
• TfL no.1 branch - Linda Wiles, Carol Foster
• Thames Riverboats branch -
• In attendance - Olly New (Council of Executives member), Phil Boston (Organising Unit), Daniel Randall (Workers' Climate Action)

1. APOLOGIES FOR ABSENCE

Steve Hedley (Regional Organiser), Paul Jackson, Pat O'Brien, Neil Hodgson, Les Bruty, Paul Rutland, Lindsey Rutland, Becky Crocker, Gash Carney, Gwyn Pugh, Ross Marshall

2. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS (August) MEETING

Proposed by Stratford no.1; seconded by Finsbury Park. Agreed as true and correct.

3. MATTERS ARISING

• Adrian Rowe asked what had happened to Neasden branch's resolution on annual leave monitoring - Vaughan Thomas replied that the Executive had passed it.
• Janine Booth drew attention to the protest about "chickenfeed" and pay on Tuesday 29 September at 5pm at City Hall, and urged all to attend and bring other branch members and placards, etc.

4. ORGANISATION AND RECRUITMENT

Dave Rayfield announced:

• the Region's new recruitment/retention campaign aimed at promotional drivers
• that reps should be compiling information on numbers of staff and numbers of RMT members in their location, so that we can calculate 'density' of union membership and target recruitment activities

Phil Boston reported on:

• RMT total membership roughly stable at 83,000
• Vestas
• Eurostar cleaners

5. COUNCIL OF EXECUTIVES REPORT

Olly New reported on:

• Executive dealing with AGM decisions
• review of RMT education
• TUC Black Workers' conference - RMT to send an extra delegate from each region
• Olympics
• Network Rail job cuts
• RMT national membership down 586, but this Region up 60+
• branches and region to be consulted about campaign to return London Overground to public ownership
• branches with London Overground members to affiliate to London Transport Region
• LUL pay: reps' meeting with be on 6 October at Indian YMCA; ASLEF has postponed its reps meeting; LUL talking nonsense about implementation dates
• Vic line five-rounders dispute
• Vic line drivers' strike: 6 October
• TfL pay: no change
• EDF pay: offer is only 1%, RMT to ballot
• possible renewed dispute on Willesden Green group
• DLR: control room strike 30 September, 12:40 onwards, plus overtime ban
• Eurostar/Carlisle group cleaners' strike
• socialist campaign to re-elect John McDonnell at General Election

Points raised in discussion:

• Job cuts
  • possibility of LUL cutting jobs under pretext of falling passenger numbers
  • we must fight job cuts, not just compulsory redundancies
  • reply: agree, London Underground needs more staff, not fewer
• government consultation re personal care - reply: RMT Parliamentary group has raised this
• LUL pay: should we put back reps' meeting til after ASLEF's? - reply: no, we can't keep playing leapfrog with ASLEF
• new legislation affecting bus workers and TUPE - reply: yes, RMT should make a submission to this
• guide to refusal to work on safety grounds, passed by 2008 AGM, has still not been produced - reply: have chased, latest reply was that it is "at the printers"
• LUL machinery of negotiation: management de-recognising reps, refusing reps at all in some areas, refusing extra reps when we need them, inadequate representation in areas including MATS, suggestion of joint LU/Metronet prelims - reply: agree we need to force the issue
• DLR sacking of Clare Daniel for accident at work / swine flu - reply: aware of issue, but has not yet come to Executive

6. GUEST SPEAKER

Daniel Randall from Workers' Climate Action (WCA) spoke about:

• forthcoming WCA conference on 10 October
• the reality of the environmental threat
• workers' action to defend the environment is more effective/appropriate than consumer/individual action
• WCA offers practical solidarity to workers' struggles
• public transport jobs are green jobs
• Vestas
• WCA does not want to see workers in environmentally-damaging industries lose their jobs: rather, it advocates workers taking control and converting production to something more useful and less damaging
• how unions can organise around defending the environment eg. against management waste, for shorter hours, etc.

7.RESOLUTIONS

(a) National Young Members Advisory Committee – Formation as per Rule Book, submitted by Neasden, seconded by TfL no.1

This Branch notes that in the absence of the Young Members Advisory Committee, in previous years, the young members conference has elected a Young Members Liaison Committee and this committee has been expected to carry out the duties of the Advisory Committee.
This branch instructs the Council of Executives to implement Rule 12D accordingly, Rule 12 D, Clause 1 states “There shall be a Young Members Advisory Committee. “ With the immediate introduction of the National Young Members Advisory Committee, this will be entitled to 5 delegates per regional council [From January 2010].
There will be no change to the current Young Members Liaison Committee, Rule 12D, Clause 6 states “the conference shall have a liaison Committee”
The Constitution of Young Members states the following in clause 4: The Conference shall elect a chair, vice chair and three members of a liaison committee for the following year, from members of the Young Members Advisory Committee. The chair and Vice Chair shall be the Chair and Vice chair of the young members advisory committee for the following year”
Neasden Branch are in disbelief that for the approximate six years that the union's youth movement has been set up, the Council Of Executives and the Secretary of Young Members and Education has failed to notice the absence of such a crucial part of our unions democratic future.

Olly New urged branches to submit resolutions to all Advisory Committees.

Carried unanimously

(b) Young Members' Organisation Material, submitted by Neasden, seconded by Bakerloo

This Branch recognises the importance of Young Members in our union.
We also note that the existing Young Members Banner fails to represent Youth, apart from the words “Young Member” and fails to represent all grades and the diversity of our union.
We request that the Young Members Committee design and produce the following organising items and that the funds for these are to be made available via Unity House.
1. A Young Members Badge.
2. A Young Members Information and Organising Pack
3. A Young Members Banner, which represents Youth, Diversity and All Grades

Carried unanimously.

(c) Second Regional Organiser, submitted by Neasden, seconded by the Regional Executive

The Membership of Neasden 1070 Branch recognise the importance of the role of Regional Organiser and the huge workload he is expected to get through, knowing the size of our region, and diversity of grades within this region, We therefore ask this Regional Council that this proposal for an second Regional Organiser to be elected to work alongside Bro Hedley in continuing the good work he does be put before the Council of Executives.

Several members spoke in favour.

Carried unanimously.

(d) BNP Youth Groups, submitted by Neasden, seconded by TfL no.1

Young BNP (YBNP) is a nationalistic youth movement in Great Britain. It is a department of the British National Party (BNP) for young BNP supporters and falls under the arm of the British Nationalist Youth Movement with other groups such as BNP students. The YBNP was previously run as an organisation for 18 to 24 years olds changing in December 2007 when a split in the BNP led to the dismissal of Danny Lake as YBNP Leader. Since then, the Young BNP, under the leadership of Mike Howson, has begun targeting 13 to 18 year olds in an attempt to turn to attract members.
We believe that the YBNP is a tool of the BNP to convert young people to what critics deem as fascist ideology. The formation of the YBNP has resulted in controversy, and critics have charged that the YBNP mirrors the Hitler Youth. The YBNP employs shooting and combat training, which includes how to make Dutch arrows, resulting in further criticism.
It cannot be argued that this is not totally immoral. It is sickening to think that innocent children could be brainwashed with racism and homophobia. Not only will children be indoctrinated with extreme racist propaganda, they will be taught to use guns and knives.
We are all very well aware that the BNP do have the freedom of speech to tell children what they please. However, inciting racial hatred IS a crime. With any right comes responsibility to use it constructively. The BNP have abused their right and neglected their responsibility.
Allowing these groups to go on spreading their message would completely defeat the idea of democracy. If we are truly in favour of promoting a society where ALL are equal, we cannot allow this hatred to spread.
We ask the National Young Members Committee and the Council of Executives to work together in fighting the continued introduction of these groups, by building stronger youth groups within our own union and to educate and train them via RMT Learning and Hope not Hate Workshops.

Several members contributed to the debate.

Carried unanimously.

EMERGENCY RESOLUTIONS

(Ea) Future of the Jobs/Pay/Justice Dispute, submitted by Stratford no.1, seconded by Neasden

This region believes that before any further industrial action on the outstanding issues in our current dispute with LUL, there should be a new ballot or referendum of all members involved.
We also believe that before the union accepts any pay offer from LUL management, there must be a reps’ meeting and a referendum of all members.

There were several contgributions, both for and against.

Vote: 5 for, 0 against, 3 abstentions
Carried

(Eb) National Express East Coast, submitted by LU Fleet branch

On the President's recommendation, this resolution was not accepted as an emergency, so will be discussed at the October meeting of the Regional Council.

8. CORRESPONDENCE

• Appeal re. charging of goods from head office to the Regional Council. Janine Booth reported on correspondence between herself and the General Secretary regarding the Regional Council being charged for goods that Regional Council officers had not authorised the purchase of. She proposed that the Regional Council appeal this action by the General Secretary. The proposal was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
• Appeal re. resolution on LGBT conference delegates. Janine Booth drew attention to correspondence from the General Secretary regarding our resolution calling for the Executive to decide a higher limit for the number of branch delegates to LGBT conference in future years. The GS had rejected the resolution on the grounds that it was an appeal - however, Janine disagreed with this, arguing that it is not an attempt to overturn a previous decision but a resolution regarding future events, and proposed that the Regional Council appeal to the Executive against the GS's decision. The proposal was duly seconded and carried unanimously.
• Advisory Committee election. Adrian Rowe drew attention to correspondence re these elections, and urged all branches to consider nominating candidates.
• Caseworker / legal representation. Several members made contributions arising from correspondence on this matter.

9. PROGRESS OF PREVIOUS RESOLUTIONS

Janine Booth gave a verbal report, as follows:

• 'Chickenfeed' resolution - protest is next Tuesday
• Swine flu resolution - head office has still not provided information regarding emplyers in our region; priority now is to support DLR branch in fighting for Clare Daniel's reinstatement
• Monitoring of annual leave - this was referred to the Executive and passed there
• Affiliation of branches with London Overgorund members - this went to the national Executive and was agreed.
• Economic crisis - this went to the national Executive, which noted that most of the content was covered by AGM decision, and the main action point was to support the demonstration at Labour Party conference in Brighton on Sunday 27 Setpember

10. OTHER BUSINESS

• Adrian Finney reported on Vestas Day of Action
• Adrian Rowe urged branches to send young members to next week's training
• Jackie Darby was nominated for Regional Council Political Officer by Janine Booth, seconded by Carol Foster, elected unopposed.

Meeting closed 18:40