The Results Are In! (Part 4 - RMT elections)

Apparently the elections in the British Rail, Maritime and Transport Union, RMT (which is one of Britain's most militant unions and whose general secretary Bob Crow has addressed a Green Party of England and Wales conference) have resulted in victories for left-wing candidates. The union is outside the Labour Party and a welcome thorn in the side of the Blairites. Today they have organised a lobby of the London Labour Party on the subject of tube privatisation. This courtesy of Dave Osler's Blog from yesterday -

It’s a really good day for lefties being elected to things today. According to a press release from RMT, tubeworker John Leach has been voted in as the union’s new president, beating Ray Knight by 6,865 to 5,141 after the redistribution of votes from three eliminated candidates.

Bristol-based Alex Gordon, another leftwinger, was elected unopposed to represent South Wales and the West on the RMT executive. Congratulations to both.

John Leach is 39, a London Underground worker and the youngest RMT President for many years.

The London Federation of Green Parties issued a statement on some of the ongoing London transport issues last week -

The London Federation of Green Parties passed two motions on Monday night:

(1) Calling for the tube contractor Metronet to be sacked and for the work to be brought in-house.
(2) Supporting the strike by Metroline bus drivers.

The following went out after the meeting:

Sack Metronet!

The London Federation of Green Parties last night passed a motion calling
for the sacking of tube maintenance firm Metronet and for its work to be
brought back in-house.

London Green Party Chair, Noel Lynch said "Commuters have suffered too
long from the application of a flawed ideology. Metronet makes £1,000,000 per week but cannot produce even a minimum acceptable service. Only a week ago the company was slated by the independent PPP arbiter for failing to do it's job properly. Their inefficiency caused severe disruption to over 1 million tube travellers, affecting peoples' lives and even putting a strain on the ambulance service. Enough is enough they need to be fired now!"

Green Party of England And Wales 'Policy Pointer'(pdf) on Transport.