RMT transport union: Lift the suspension of Steve Hedley

Steve Hedley

Steve Hedley   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

The following statement of Red Lines – the bulletin of Socialist Party members in the RMT transport union – calls for the lifting of the union executive’s suspension of Assistant General Secretary (AGS), Steve Hedley.

“Following comments he made on Facebook, AGS Steve Hedley has been suspended from his duties by the RMT’s National Executive Committee.

Socialist Party members in our union understand Steve’s hatred of Tory austerity, and the misery it has caused for millions of working-class people. The current pandemic is tragically showing the effects of Tory policies.

However, it is also a sensitive time, when millions are worrying about their own health and that of their loved ones, and some RMT members may have been offended by Steve’s comments.

Steve’s Facebook posts put his opposition to Johnson and his Tory government in personal terms.

The workers’ movement’s opposition to the Tories isn’t personal but is because of the Tories’ anti-working class policies, such as brutal austerity, the privatisation of the NHS, and railway and transport network, plus their anti-union laws, which include those which are now planned to be targeted at rail unions like the RMT.

However, the suspension is completely wrong. Steve has been to the fore of the union at a senior level, in resisting the massive pressure on us from the Tories, the Trade Union Congress, and other unions to join in the national collaboration during the Covid crisis.

Any capitulation to this, and any pulling of our punches against the bosses at this time, will have a far greater detrimental effect on our union and our members than comments made on Facebook. The suspension should be lifted so that he can get on with fighting for RMT members as AGS.”