This resolution was passed by the February Regional Council meeting.

This Regional Council instructs the Regional Organiser and the Trains Functional Council representatives to enter into negotiations with LUL to revise the numbers of local trains representatives. This revision to be in line with the documentation provided by TFC member Vaughan Thomas and discussed at the Train Grades meeting held on January 6th.

Supporting information:

I am attaching a management document that was presented to Trains Functional Council in September 2007. At that time, having consulted with RMT trains reps it was decided not to accept the management proposals but to submit our own variation. Our version was rejected by both management and Aslef and so we have remained at a disadvantage. I am also attaching an amended document with current reps numbers. During the past 2 years both Aslef and RMT have moved reps from one location to another as depots open; Aslef, with 13 more local reps have achieved this with less disruption to their members. This situation is far from ideal and cannot be allowed to continue.

I now propose that we try to renegotiate the local reps numbers at Functional Council level using management’s own recommendation. As you’ll see from the document, the RMT will achieve parity in local representation and see a net gain of at least 3 reps with a guaranteed extra rep for each new depot. Aslef will lose 10 reps across the combine. I strongly believe that this is the best way forward in the short to medium term. It should be noted that currently there are no RMT industrial representatives at Rickmansworth, North Greenwich or Barking (H&C) – this is completely unsatisfactory and, although members at those locations receive excellent representation from other line reps, should not be allowed to continue.

The downside to all this is that there will be a small number of depots where we will see a reduction in RMT rep numbers – but this has to be seen in the wider context of gains elsewhere. Once parity at a local level is achieved we will then be in a good position to go to Company Council to achieve parity of functional reps. In order to achieve this it may be necessary to submit our membership figures to an independent body such as ACAS to prove we now have 50% plus of train operator members. This is something I would urge Head Office to agree to.

The recent behaviour of Aslef, where they divide the workforce and undermine our campaign for a fair wage increase, is only possible because there is an imbalance of representation in their favour. We need to continue the dual task of renegotiating reps numbers and recruiting train operators to the RMT by showing that we are the best, most active union on the Underground for ALL grades.