Meeting in Southall Condemns Government Trouble-Making

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Meeting in Southall Condemns Government Trouble-Making

ASLEF & RMT on the Tube Strike:
London Underground (LUL) Dispute
Tube LUL Dispute – ASLEF urges arbitration
London Underground Bullying Will Not Work

WFTU Condemns Brutal Attacks By Israeli Army on Headquarters of President Yasser Arafat and The Renewed Repression Unleashed on Palestine Workers and People

A public meeting condemning the racist stand by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, was held last Friday, September 20, in Southall. The meeting also took a stand against mischievous remarks by P S Khabra, Labour MP for Ealing Southall.

The meeting was organised by SEWA (Social Empowerment and Welfare Association) and the Southall Monitoring Group (TMG). It was supported by many other organisations. About 80 people from all communities attended.

The main speakers were Salvinder Singh Dhillon from SEWA, Suresh Grover from TMG, Imran Khan from Imran Khan Solicitors, and Balraj Purewal - Director of Health, charitable health organisation.

Salvinder Dhillon pointed out that Khabra's mischievous comments, blaming the Somali youth for increased crime in Southall as well as expressing support for Asian vigilante groups, were aimed at targeting the Somali youth as a scapegoat for lack of investment of much needed resources in the area. The trouble-making of the government attempts to divide the community, keep them busy fighting against each other and absolve society and the government from any blame for failing the community. People are uniting together to fight against the policy of privatisation that is bringing ruin in the education, health, housing and other public sectors. The burden of providing for basic rights in education, health, job security, housing, a better environment and other social needs is being shifted onto the shoulders of the working people. The racist propaganda by the government and its MPs are to divide people and divert them from fighting collectively for a life of security and prosperity for the majority in all spheres of life. It would be better if P S Khabra dissociated himself from all attempts to divide the polity and set nationality against nationality.

Southall has a rich tradition of fighting racism. People of South Asian origin, Afro- Caribbean background and the English community have fought shoulder to shoulder against racism and struggled together for a life of security and prosperity for all sections of society in Britain. It was in Southall that Blair Peach, a teacher from New Zealand, gave up his life, becoming a victim of brutal police attack during the anti-racist fights in Southall 1979. With such a rich tradition against racism, Southall has no place for racism.

Instead, the people of all nationalities must refuse to be diverted from fighting the anti-social offensive. Over the years, sports, recreational and cultural facilities have been eroded. The environment is becoming a slum. Privatisation of health and education has led to poor facilities, shortage of staff and severe under-resourcing. Greenery and park areas are disappearing. The area suffers from overcrowding and traffic congestion. It is said that more than 30 per cent of the youth of the area have been trapped in drug culture and are also victims of excess alcohol abuse. Over the years, the state has aimed to ghettoise Southall, but the people are taking a stand against the ghettoisation of their community and their thinking, and the trend of building the alternative to the crisis and state-inspired racism is taking root.

However, various councillors and MPs have failed to address the severe neglect of Southall and have not identified themselves with opposition to ghettoisation and government trouble-making.

Piara Singh Khabra's comments were unfortunately in tune with racist statements made by David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, the speaker pointed out. The British Home Secretary has been asking migrants to speak English as the main language at home. The government has been calling on migrants to adopt "British values" and forget the cultures of their countries of origin. Salvinder Dhillon pointed out that it is vital to overcome the crisis of identity that the youth especially face and to nurture the rich national traditions, contribute to society from the wealth of these traditions as well as adopting the positive aspects of the finest traditions of the British working class and people. We should reject the negative decadent culture holding society back, he said. At the same time, all must be allowed to participate in political life on an equal basis.

All speakers opposed the racist remarks of the Home Secretary and the mischief-making of Piara Singh Khabra. The community condemned the views of the Labour Party in this respect. More and more people are becoming convinced of the reality that to represent the interests of immigrants or those of the labouring people, the alternative to the present society must be planted and fought for.

Members of the public and all speakers called for further meetings. The aspiration was to work to unite the whole community behind an agenda stemming from the needs of the community and fighting together to implement that agenda so that all sections of the community can live in Southall with pride and dignity.

ASLEF, the train drivers union, has this to say on its website.

ASLEF has conducted a successful ballot of its members at LUL for industrial action over pay and the LUL harassment policy. Effectively, the issues concern the imposition by management of an unacceptable 2002/2003 pay offer and the total failure by LUL to address the issues raised by the General Secretary relating to changes to the LUL Harassment Policy.

2002/03 Pay

In a letter dated 6 August 2002, the Director of Human Resources, stated that LUL are: -

Refusing to go to non-binding mediation
Imposing an unacceptable 3% pay deal on our members Thereby attempting to undermine the machinery agreement between ASLEF and LUL

ASLEF will not stand by and allow our agreements to be undermined in this cavalier fashion.

LUL Harassment Policy

Following recent disturbing incidents of racial harassment and victimisation of ASLEF members and representatives, the General Secretary has raised with LUL a number of concerns over the content and application of the LUL Harassment policy along with suggestions of potential ways of changing and strengthening it.

These proposed changes include: -

• Right to trade union representation for the alleged harasser at each stage of the process
• Inclusion of a clause on false accusation
• Enhancement of the role of the Trade Union Harassment
  Representatives for the purpose of representation
• Provision of full details of the allegations being made available to the alleged harasser and their representatives

ASLEF has also expressed concern about the timescales for completion of investigations not being met and that 40% of cases were for allegations of racial harassment yet none had been referred to formal disciplinary hearings.

Management has agreed there are failings with the policy and say they will consider our proposals but we have yet to have an acceptable agreement to resolving the issues

The Executive Committee resolved that strikes would take place as follows.

2000 hours on Tuesday 24 September 2002 until 1959 hours on Wednesday 25 September 2002

2000 hours on Tuesday 1 October 2002 until 1959 hours on Wednesday 2 October 2002

ASLEF is, as always, is prepared to return to the negotiating table, strike action is always the last resort – management know this but as yet have made no response to our requests for a meeting. They seem determined that the strikes should go ahead.

London Underground Denies ASLEF Access to Trainees

We have today received a communication from London Underground management informing us that ASLEF will be refused access to train operator trainees with immediate effect.

At a time when new recruits need maximum access to proper trade union information and support, and, at the first opportunity they may have to take out an ASLEF card and provide themselves with all the protection that that entails, they are being denied this fundamental right.

This is a shameful example of the worst kind of anti-trade union practice which LUL is using as a means of trying to undermine ASLEF.

Management must understand that ASLEF members will not be intimidated by such petty-minded practices. Our officers and representatives are always available to provide recruits with membership advice, and advice and support to all our members, particularly during periods of dispute.

ASLEF and the RMT have today (September 26) written to the arbitration service ACAS asking it to urgently investigate the possibility of arbitration in the Tube dispute.

The tube unions have urged arbitration as a means of resolving the dispute, over pay and other employment conditions, including pensions, throughout. London Underground management have hitherto refused any suggestion of arbitration and have instead imposed an unacceptable pay offer on their employees.

ASLEF general secretary Mick Rix said today: "This dispute could be averted if LUL bosses are prepared to go to arbitration. I hope that ACAS can persuade them that talking is better than senseless confrontation and megaphone diplomacy which can only inflame the issue."

London Underground (LUL) are behaving like a classic school playground bully, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said on Monday.

First they refuse to go to mediation with us to settle our pay dispute, now they are tearing up agreements with us and trying to provoke and intimidate our members.

They have told managers to discipline staff who take perfectly lawful strike action.

They have stopped our reps doing union business and they are trying to stop us approaching new recruits.

The fact is that LUL have tabled the lowest offer of any train-operating company this year, and they refuse to talk about doing away with glaring inequalities in pensions, travel and working hours. We have fewer staff working harder and bringing more money in for LUL – and our members simply want their fair share of it.

All we want to do is get around the table with a mediator and sort this out, but it seems that LUL are looking for a major confrontation.

It seems they want to take us back to the bad old days of the "Company Plan" era, when instead of talking sensibly they tried to beat us into submission.

They ought to know by now that their bullying tactics simply will not work, said Bob Crow.

WFTU press release, September 25, 2002

The World Federation of Trade Unions strongly condemns the brutal military attacks by the Israeli armed forces on the headquarters of President Yasser Arafat and the intensified repressive measures against the Palestine workers and people. The WFTU calls for concerted action by the international community to secure the implementation of the latest UN Security Council resolution calling for the "expeditious withdrawal of the Israeli occupying forces from Palestinian cities".

The General Federation of Palestinian Workers (GFPW) has drawn international attention to the Israeli army attack on September 17 on its workers' housing projects in Ramallah and Al Biera, with a number of tanks, bulldozers and other weapons, destroying 34 housing units, and beating up and terrorising the workers and citizens there.

The WFTU calls upon the UN Security Council to take immediate actions to stop these gross violations of international law and the Universal Declaration on Human Rights and insist on the total and unconditional withdrawal of Israel from all occupied Arab territories and the deployment of an international protection force to protect the lives of the Palestinian people living in these territories.

The WFTU appeals to trade unions and democratic forces in all countries to denounce these impermissible acts of aggression and repression unleashed by the Israeli ruling circles and further intensify their solidarity with the workers and people of Palestine and the Arab people living in Israeli occupied territories.