Morning Star: 27 June 2005
PROFESSOR GREGOR GALL
OPINION: Can the success of the RMT serve as a model for the rest of the trade union movement? PROFESSOR GREGOR GALL thinks it can.
FORMER T&G general secretary Bill Morris predicted a few years ago that, as a result of union rationalisation in the next decade, there would only be two unions left - one for the private sector, one for the public sector - and the plucky, little NUJ. Obviously, he forgot the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, the RMT.
The RMT is the story of a small union that is punching well above its weight and looks set to continue to do so. Consequently, it will be known for many years to come as the RMT. Maybe the initials will become known as standing for "robust and militant trade unionism."
The RMT organises all sectors where people or goods are transported, including rail, road and sea, and covers all those involved in the provision of these services.
Dating from the 1870s, it is not a general union, but a specialist transport union. This is an important element in its ongoing renewal.
The nature of the employment that it organises has changed markedly in recent years, with privatisation, contracting out and casualisation coming to be the new hallmarks.
"Grow or fossilise" has been the mantra of all unions in the last decade. Unfortunately, the RMT paid only lip service to this in the 1990s.
The union had long-standing organising and recruitment policies, but these were never whole-heartedly implemented.
Consequently, RMT membership experienced stagnation and decline and workers which the RMT had responsibility for went unorganised.
From 2002, the situation has changed markedly, with net and substantial gains of 3,000-4,000 per year. Representing around a 6 per cent growth per annum, this is a not inconsiderable achievement that may other unions would give their eye teeth for.
Upon being elected general secretary in early 2002, Bob Crow set up the organising unit, with Alan Pottage as national co-ordinator and three organisers. This has now grown to five.
The organising unit does not just prioritise recruitment and retention. It also prioritises creating an organised RMT presence in every workplace where the union has members - this has meant creating and developing workplace reps so that they become the foundation of the RMT in the workplace.
Activists are not just given the tools for the job such as multilingual, issue-based leaflets and merchandise proudly emblazoned with key RMT messages - they are also supported in a way stimulates enthusiasm and confidence. Organisers concentrate on visiting workplaces and members' meetings.
Moreover, in each of the union's 11 regions, the RMT has a lay lead recruiter and these meet with each other every quarter to discuss progress.
The main growth in recruitment has been "in-fill," where the union has existing members and recognition. But, since 2002, it has also secured 10 new recognition agreements covering just over 1,000 workers.
Too often, union strength is seen as just a numbers game, whether number of members, reps or recognition agreements with employers.
The RMT does not prize these in themselves. It seeks to make sure that they are used to deliver increasing standards of employment to its members, whether this be pay, conditions or job security.
The starting point for its industrial strategy has been to reject any form of partnership, social or otherwise, with employers as the best way to represent members' interests.
Rather, its strategy has been to rely on the mobilisation of its members as an independent and collective force with which to leverage concessions out of capricious employers.
Per thousand members, the RMT has organised more ballots for industrial action and more industrial action than almost any other union in recent years. It has not been strike-happy, with mandates for action only being used where employers remain intransigent.
Indeed, some of the most obvious recent successes, including forcing Network Rail to reopen its final-salary pension scheme to new staff, gaining significant amounts of new holiday leave for station and signalling staff on London Underground and putting Viacom Outdoor bill poster workers at the top of their respective pay league, were achieved without industrial action.
But, once employers have been given an opportunity to settle without industrial action, the union has put its shoulder to the wheel to ensure a successful outcome.
This has included facing down more court injunctions and threats of court injunctions than just about any other union. A union that wins battles is then a union that is attractive to existing and potential members.
An example is illustrative here. Despite winning statutory union recognition at International Currency Exchange, the company attempted to ignore this by engaging in a charade of agreeing on a procedure for collective bargaining.
The RMT brought the company to heel by gaining a Yes vote among its members in a ballot for strike action and achieved a method for collective bargaining that met its concerns. The union is now proceeding to advance its members' interests there.
What explains why RMT have been able to mobilise so effectively? As an industrial union, the RMT has a clear identity.
Marketing people would call this "a highly valuable brand." Consequently, there is not only a high level of union density but also a high degree of attachment and loyalty to the RMT.
This makes it easier for a culture of vibrant, robust collectivism to pervade the union. This, in turn, is reflected in but also reinforced by the emphasis on workplace unionism and lay structures.
But, on their own, these foundations are necessary without being sufficient to explain the effectiveness. The missing pieces of the jigsaw are union leadership and the nature of the services that RMT members provide.
The emphasis on a members-led union has provided the basis for a far more assertive and robust style of leadership to take root throughout the RMT.
Indeed, the current vibrancy and assertiveness within the RMT owes much to the earlier Campaign for a Fighting and Democratic Union caucus.
It fought in the 1990s to develop more democratic union traditions such as implementing AGM decisions and maintaining a lay-member-led national executive. Among its numbers were many of the leading RMT officials today.
The style of RMT leadership now is not one that is shy to deploy the advantageous troika of members providing transport services, which are not easily substitutable by other means, are central to the capitalist economy and are where industrial action makes an immediate and high-profile impact.
For example, the RMT has adapted well to the arrival of company-level bargaining among train operating companies.
The RMT has been at the forefront of the regrouping around the belief that there is the need for a new, independent party for workers after Labour has gone the way of the Liberals in no longer representing workers' interests.
Some predicted that ending affiliation to Labour would lead to political oblivion.
This exaggerated the degree of influence that the RMT had with Labour.
It also underestimates how the dovetailing of independent political and industrial campaigning by the RMT can exert influence on a chastened and weakened Labour government and on a devolved political landscape.
Indeed, in an environment where Labour has been increasingly resistant to listening to the unions, constructing and mobilising industrial muscle becomes ever more important.
Employers and governments take a strong opponent seriously. This knowledge gave the RMT the confidence to conduct a national mobile demonstration under the slogan Rail Against Privatisation.
There are key challenges ahead for the RMT. One task is to increase membership to 100,000 over the next decade.
With an enlarged membership, every RMT member will benefit from a strengthened, better-resourced union.
This task includes rebuilding its presence among train driver grades. Renationalisation of public transport remains a crucial goal and can only be won with widespread mobilisation on the scale of the poll tax and anti-war agitations. The same is true for the repeal of the Conservatives' anti-union laws and the enforcement of ILO labour standards.
So, what wider lessons are there for the wider union movement? Unions need to ensure in practice that recruiting and organising are only a means to an end.
Indeed, if this is achieved, then improvements for members can become the best recruiting sergeant for others.
In this, striking can be a virtue as a tool to build unions and as a demonstration of the potential of organised workers' power.
The case of the PCS supports this - its membership has grown substantially in recent years. Even though it is early days, the RMT has also shown there can be political life outside Labour.
Finally, "small can be beautiful," where small is synonymous with vibrant campaigning and action on issues which resonant with members and wider citizens.
- Gregor Gall is a professor of industrial relations at the University of Hertfordshire.
