Keynote address by Alex Gordon, President of the National Union of Rail, Maritim

e & Transport Workers (RMT) to National Shop Stewards Network (NSSN) special ant
i cuts conference; London, January 22nd 2011.
At the end of the conference, the trade union delegates present voted, by 305 to
89, to set up the NSSN anti-cuts campaign.
"Comrades, brothers and sisters, friends:
The National Shop Stewards Network is 5 years old this year. In October 2006 hu
ndreds of trade union lay activists and trade union workplace representatives me
t at the Camden Centre in London to build a grass-roots campaign in support of J
ohn McDonnell, MP’s Trade Union Freedom Bill.
That NSSN founding Conference was brought together on the initiative of the RMT
union, as a consequence of a resolution carried a few months earlier at that yea
r’s RMT Annual General Meeting calling on our union to launch an open conference t
o rebuild the shop stewards’ movement in Britain.
I am proud that that resolution originated from my own trade union branch - Bris
tol Rail RMT branch. We should all be proud of what has been achieved since NSS
N’s founding conference in 2006.
The NSSN has successfully:
• continued to bring together trade unionists in an inclusive and non-sectarian wa
y at a series of national conferences with an open and participative character,
which contrasts strongly with the ‘top-down’, platform speaker approach adopted by s
ome other organisations;
• developed an open and democratic national structure;
• developed several active regional structures;
• participated in major events in the labour movement calendar such as the Durham
Miners’ Gala;
• initiated rallies, demonstrations and fringe meetings at TUC Conferences and at
many trade union conferences;
• now officially backed by RMT, PCS, CWU, POA and NUM.
Every trade unionist here today at this Special NSSN Conference should be aware
that the debate over the way forward for the working class movement - to build a
strong and united, grass roots movement of trade unionists to take back our rig
hts at work and to support those who are fighting back against the employers, po
liticians and judges aiming to shackle trade unions and turn the clock back on s
ocial and welfare rights to a pre-welfare state era – is the most important debate
affecting the NSSN today.
For the NSSN to take a spectator’s seat in the battle that has started against the
austerity cuts announced by George Osbourne on 20 October 2010 to ecstatic appl
ause from government supporters and city bankers alike, would damage the NSSN’s cr
edibility in the eyes of all serious fighting trade unions and will put in quest
ion the relevance of the NSSN to rank and file trade unionists who are fighting
the impact of the ‘ConDem’ cuts as they are implemented in the NHS, in local authori
ties and public services over the next four years – but particularly over the next
6 months as the job losses begin to be announced.
The NSSN was founded explicitly to campaign in support of an overtly political d
emand – the demand for Trade Union Freedom - and the campaign to support John McDo
nnell, MP’s Trade Union Freedom Bill.
Although John’s private member’s Bill was frustrated by government whips from reachi
ng a second reading in the House of Commons, allow me to remind comrades here to
day, that support for the Trades Union Freedom Bill was the subject of heated po
litical debate among trade unionists and socialists, with some on the ‘left’ arguing
the Bill should not be supported because it did not go far enough. I remember
hearing that argument motivated even in my own union branch. It was a wrong and
‘ultra-left’ position in my opinion then and now.
Equally there were those who argued that the founding consitution of the NSSN sh
ould not have included a ban on the NSSN interferering in internal trade union e
lections. In retrospect that was a correct and wise decision. Imagine how dama
ging it would have been to the unity of the NSSN if the recent election for the
first general Secretary of Unite had been the subject of a debate over the posit
ion of NSSN.
There were even those who argued when NSSN was established that it was wrong for
it to accept #5,000 from RMT to help to maintain the new organisation. Fears o
f ‘bureacratic interference’ have been misplaced.
The NSSN has a constitution that enjoins it to support campaigns from TUC-affili
ated unions and the biggest and most important campaign at this moment is the ca
mpaign against the austerity cuts.
It is essential that the NSSN openly and democratically debates its own role in
that campaign. And when this Conference decides on the way forward for NSSN, al
l comrades should get behind the democratic decision of the Conference delegates
here today.
No splits.No recriminations. No gifts to those who wish ill to our movement.
Finally, I want to remind delegates about the continuing and deteriorating state
of anti-union lwas in the UK. Just this week a new judgement in the High Court
in London against my union has raised a new obstacle to workers lawfully engagi
ng in collective industrial action. The case last Tuesday and Wednesday of Serc
o/Docklands Light Railway v RMT has highlighted yet again the inadequacy of the
current strike laws and thyeir ability to be ‘interpreted’ by judges in ways that we
re inconceivable a few years ago.
On top of the scandals last year over the BA-v-Unite and Network Rail-v-RMT judg
ements, which sought to overturn democratic decisions of trade unionists by reco
urse to minor balloting irregularities thatt could have played no role in detern
iming the outcome, we now have a new judgement that goes even further.
This week a judge found that the ‘language’ used by my union in notifying the employ
er of strike action was unlawful. In particular he drew attention to the RMT’s us
e of the word “audit” to describe the method by which it had arrived at a true and r
eliable record of its members on DLR who we called on to take industrial action
after a 80% ‘Yes’ vote.
The judge said that “audit” implied an outside third party overseeing the membership
records. Effectively this judgement puts us no on the road to some sort of cor
porate state overseeing of union membership systems.
Even more worryingly the judge agreed to the arguments of the employers that the
union should allow the employer to have oversifght of every single detail of co
rrespondence and email between union representatives and officers that lead up t
o the strike ballot.
The reason these judgements are appearing now is of course entirely connected wi
th the massive fight that looms over public sector cuts.
Comrades we need the NSSN to play a full part in that battle. Please don’t let us
down."