So what a surprise the courts decided in favour of the bosses and stopped the RMT strike as they did to unite over xmas.
It is disgraceful that after 13 years of a Labour Government we still have the anti trade union laws and its to the shame of our trade union leaders (in particular unite gmb and UNISON) that they haven't put up a fight and used the link to get these laws removed. As usual they've just handed over blank cheques to get nothing in return.
I wish we had a General Secretary of unison that would use the link! (Ahem shameless plug to support www.paulholmeskirklees.blogspot.com for unison gen secretary)
John McDonnell MP puts it excellently in the grauniad.
""The media treatment of RMT and Bob Crow over the last 48 hours over the Network Rail strike ballot has been the worst example of a concerted campaign of media bias against a trade union that we have seen since the 1980s miners' strike. John Humphrys's interview of Bob Crow, with his references to ballot-rigging, and the BBC's subsequent headline of "RMT's Bob Crow denies ballot rigging", was that disgusting classic of the old hack lawyer's tactic of asking the defendant: "When did you stop beating your wife?"
Even the Guardian's editorial (2 March) ignorantly weighed in with "No union that conducts its ballots properly according to the reasonable requirements of the law … would be in danger of being injuncted." This reference to "reasonable requirements of the law" is patent rubbish. To hold a ballot the union must construct and supply the employer with a detailed and complex matrix of information setting out which members it is balloting, their job titles, grades, departments and work locations. The employer is under no obligation to co-operate with the union to ensure this is accurate. If there is the slightest inaccuracy, even where it did not affect the result, the ballot is open to being challenged by the employer and quashed by the courts.
There can be no question of the union ballot-rigging or interfering in the balloting process because it is undertaken by an independent scrutineer, usually the Electoral Reform Society, and all ballot papers are sent by post to the homes of the members being balloted, and returned to the ERS for counting. The union at no time handles the ballot papers.
On at least four occasions in the last three years I have tried in parliament on behalf of RMT and other TUC-affiliated unions to amend employment law to require employers to co-operate with unions in the balloting process so these problems can be overcome. Employers' organisations, the Conservatives and the government have all opposed this reform.
The result is not fewer strikes but a deteriorating industrial relations climate as people become increasingly angry that their democratic wishes are frustrated by one-sided anti-trade-union laws.
John McDonnell MP
Lab, Hayes and Harlington
John has also written to the BBC Director re the disgraceful slur on Bob Crow and the RMT
"
Dear Sir,
John Humphries Interview with Bob Crow (Today Programme, Radio 4, 8.15 am, 2.4.10)
I am writing as Parliamentary Convenor of the Trade Union Coordinating Group, which comprises
eight national trade unions (BFAWU, FBU, NAPO, NUJ, PCS, POA, RMT, URTU) representing
over half a million members, to formally complain at the interview by John Humphries of Bob Crow,
RMT General Secretary, and the subsequent BBC News headline at 8.30 am this morning on the
Today Programme.
Mr Crow was continuously interrupted by Mr Humphries but more importantly Mr Humphries
introduced the concept and word "ballot-rigging" into the interview. This makes an allegation against
the union which has not been levelled at them; the Court case in which the RMT dispute was
discussed did not infer ballot rigging but errors in the ballot making process. Ballot Rigging is a
serious legal offence and Mr Humphries introducing it in this way into the interview makes an
allegation without any substantiation.
In addition the subsequent 8.30 am News Headline on the Today Programme "RMT General
Secretary, Bob Crow, Denies Ballot Rigging" is a disgraceful slur on both the union and Bob
Crow. This is the classic technique that was used in the Courts years ago when the defendant was
asked "When did you stop beating your wife?" and the introduction of the allegation of ballot rigging
in this way slanders the RMT and Bob Crow himself.
This was one of the most disgraceful biased performances of an interviewer and of the BBC itself in
the history of the BBC and its treatment of trade unions. We are demanding that a retraction is
made and an apology given and Mr Crow is given an opportunity to explain the RMT's case without
this biased interference.
Yours sincerely,
John McDonnell MP
TUCG Parliamentary Convenor"
MarshaJane
xx
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