Our militancy is growing

The TUC is meeting in Blackpool this week and there has been much talk in the media of the return of union militancy. I have never had a problem with that word - I believe the unions should defend the interests of their members as militantly as the employers defend theirs.

Today Tony Blair is addressing delegates - but it is he who should be doing the listening. The Prime Minister is out of step, not only with the trade union movement and his own party, but also increasingly with public opinion across Britain. There is ample evidence from the conference this week that the trade union movement is ready to say "enough is enough" over the privatisation of public services, over pensions and over workers' rights.

Congress has already reaffirmed its commitment to campaign for an end to the draconian anti-union laws put in place in the Thatcher years to stop us fighting effectively for our members' interests. Our employment laws are a disgrace. They fall foul of international law and human rights norms and must be replaced by a charter of rights for workers fit for a 21st century democracy.

It is scandalous that a Labour Prime Minister boasts that our employment laws are the most repressive in Europe and lines up with nasty Rightwingers like Silvio Berlusconi to try to make them even worse. In Italy two million workers recently took to the streets and 13 million took strike action to show their determination to stop Berlusconi curtailing Italian workers' rights. That is the sort of action we need to see here.

There is also growing awareness that dragging us into the Euro will mean more privatisation, the destruction of our social services and an end to democratic control over our own economy - and that it will result in massive industrial unrest.

Our movement is gearing up to stop the attacks on our pension schemes. Empl oyers have always loved taking contributions holidays and have not been shy of lifting a few million out of our pension funds here and there. But now far too many are trying to replace existing schemes with inferior and cheaper ones that threaten to leave pensioners in poverty. RMT has made it quite clear - and we are not alone - that pension funds are not up for grabs, and that attempts to impose inferior pension benefits will be resisted, with strike action if necessary.

But it is not just the unions which feel strongly about this. All the polls among the public at large indicate that people would far rather see their taxes used to give public services, and the people who provide them, the support and pay they deserve. Better on that than on an unjustifiable attack on Iraq.

The polls also suggest that most people believe, as I do, that firefighters should be paid at least £30,000 a year - not the £21,000 they currently receive. If the Fire Brigades Union does strike, there will be serious concerns about the safety of the Tube network - and as a transport union, safety is always our first concern. If London Underground and the other underground railway operators in Britain had any sense, they would close down their systems on days that proper fire cover is not available.

Imagine a major fire on the Underground without adequate equipment or properly trained firefighters being available. The fire brigade plays a major role in inspectingthe network and in planning for emergencies. Firefighters know the system and they know how to handle incidents. They are the hub of the Tube safety team.

That is why RMT last week wrote to London Underground Limited and the other underground operators seeking an assurance that they are taking steps to protect the safety of the workforce if those strikes do take place.

Without that assurance - and we expect to receive London Underground's reply today - RMT will ballot its members to take action to ensure that they and the travelling public are not put at unnecessary risk.

Last week a journalist asked me if I slept well knowing that if we did take action it would cause disruption to millions of people. The answer was simple: I will lose no sleep at all knowing that Tube workers and the people they serve will not run the risk of a minor incident turning into a major disaster because we failed to act.

When RMT last balloted for action over safety on London Underground, Tube workers voted by more than eight to one to take action. That was when London Underground got fed up with consulting our reps about what will happen to safety arrangements when the network's infrastructure is split up and hived off under part-privatisation plans.

It was a decisive vote which reflected the real concerns of Tube workers who have seen the disastrous consequences of the fragmentation of the national rail network.

Around the same time an opinion poll indicated that nearly nine out of 10 people support industrial action over rail safety fears. Unfortunately it's not just safety that London Underground is unwilling to talk about, and now we find ourselves heading for confrontation on pay. Mediation settled the last pay dispute, and there is no reason why it should not settle this one - but London Underground says it cannot afford it.

Not only has London Underground refused to go to mediation, it has told us it will impose its offer - which it cut from 3.2 per cent to three per cent when we refused to sign away our right to strike.

Effectively it has torn up its agreement with RMT and has created more anger and bitterness in the process. The company knows that three per cent is too low - in fact it is the lowest offer from any train-operating company this year. It also knows that it cannot justify still having people on different working hours and people doing the same job but with different pension and travel-pass entitlements.

That sort of two-tier workforce will lead to more bitterness and resentment, which will in turn put more pressure on the union to take more action. We have seen staff levels fall by a third over the past 10 years, while passenger numbers are up by 30 per cent and passenger revenue has more than doubled. Our members deserve recognition of the fact that they work harder and carry far greater responsibility.

Instead, they are already being asked to subsidise the guaranteed, risk-free profits being handed to the privateers taking over the London Underground infrastructure. As a result, our members have again voted to take action - but London Underground can still avert a pay strike by going with us to independent mediation.

With so much anti-union activity going on, Mr Blair, is it any wonder people are saying they have had enough? You ignore public opinion at your peril.