call to establish a Save Marylebone Campaign, at the end of last month. The meeting had been organised by a joint rail unions committee comprising of the four affected National of Railwaymen branches the train drivers ASLEF Marylebone. It was addressed by Jimmy Кпарр, general secretary of the NUR, Tony Benn from the Labour Party and Neil Milligan from ASLEF.
A statement launching the campaign declared its wholehearted opposition Lne closure:
Marylebone... closing Marylebone is the Serpell Report through the back COOT British Rail Board (should instead) invest in the station. lines, signalling and rolling stock to secure jobs and provide an efficient, safe, comfortable and regular service • bassencers Vhile BR has been at ' main to denv there has been any decision taken future of Marylebone, the Guardian (4 August) stated:
•Marylebone Station to go in the first stage of loss of 2000 miles of line'.
This headline was the result of a meeting neween the Board and the unions and confirmed not only the suspicion that threat, but that this is only of CUSTOM AND practice Twenerally makes LalU Christopher Goldbourn being surprised when Mr Justice Oliver Martin told a jury at the Old Bailey to toss was dependent on his Seven OLe! officers' evidence.
The judge based this action on some silly rule which forbids coppers jointly preparing notes.
Goldbourn and his seven mates had got together in the canteen to make sure that they all told the story which WaN aimed at proving. that four black men had conspired to cause grevious bodily harm to police officers.
Their evidence relied heaviv on that the defendants had been seen in places where ther hadn't been that night.
does the judge think the police can do an effective job of 'fitting' CUVICE if, they 'an't get their lies right?
This is where custom and practice comes in, bewiteen Goldbourn moaned to that had heard of that regulation. He explainmore cuts and closures as the Tories prepare the rail industry for of the profitable parts and shut down or muen or tne rest.
The of Marylebone will mean more than an interior service for commuters. It will inevitably lead to job loss.
Already 55 members of Marylebone NUR have been given redundancy They notices. WOLK LOI Grand Metropolitan Hotels which LICi catering department for British Rail headquarters. When the old HQ moves out of Marylebone there will be no work for these members.
But Grand Met workers at Rail House, Euston have also beer threatened with redundancies, thus the rumour that Grand Met is about lose its If this happens it is likely that tuture catering herbers of the Nor and workers will will not be eligible for privileged travelling facilities.
not new to British Rail and shows how it can be used weaken the organisation in the workplace - the 55 Marylebone members represent nearly 25 per cent of the But the campaign to save Marylebone, jobs and services has got off to a strong start. Those at the public meeting represented many rail union branches, ed: 'In eight years of service I have always made up notes with other ofwho's doubt the lad? He might added that he was taught this practice by who had been CUTICIs around for a lot longer than eight years. Just imagine pen if all those cases were Pre-trial where people had been convicted by police ting in lying collusion.
The jails wond almost emptied thousands would need a free parThe whole system of British justice would be brought crashing down — is this Justice Oliver Martin some crazy anarchist?
THE GUATEMALAN army officer had just popped in the presidential palace to ten born-again Rios Montt that his nobody was happier about this than Major William Merdado, the US deputy military attache who purely by coincidence was hanging around the palace at the Railworkers say fight closures and Serpell Labour parties, the local trades council and community and passengers Speakers from the Post Office Engineering Union Stressco struggle we have against Drivalsatiull.
Localy, ASLEF the NUR working Ill a joint соNo This is in response to a new development nationally of the Rail Federation. Both unions were represented the platform of the public meeting. OTSed Can boin spasters. dorsed SocaKCIs but solid support has to be forthcoming from the national leaderships of the rail unions if Marylebone is to be saved.
More than that, as the NUR leadership's dithering on calling Ior nauolla.
to defend the British Rail Engineering Limited workshops has shown, losing one battle may well mean the long slippery slope to the implementation the SAY NO TO SERPELL Serpell Report the decimation of the nationalised railway industry.
That is why • the Save Marylebone Campaign has been established. Saving Marylebone could well become a key part of the fight to save the indsutry our jobs and the services we provide.
Certainly without such a fight it would be letting Serpell by the front door. • The importance of the national leadership of the rail unions making each every threat of closure, job loss, produc tivity deals ra tionaisatior national campaigr has been highlighted by workers in of the threatened BREL workshops - lem ple Mills voting to co. operate with the closure For too long member of the NUR have beer without a lead from the people they vote into of fice to do precisely that Demoralisation the belief that the union is not prepared to fight for thei jobs has resulted in such a vote.
What the NUR leadership now proposing is too little, much too late. Other than a lobby of parliament the only proposal for national action emanating NUR headquarters was in a circular dated 29 July 1983 Redundancy , notices were Photo:
suel on 1 August 1963.
And aside from some black work there is no proposal for the It is no good the general secretary Jimmy Кпарр, blaming the membership.
After years of Sidney Weighell's betrayals, rail workers are looking for a lead that will unite all of us the industry. That Will KnaDI elected. It's about time he got on with the job
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A PUBLIC meeting of 200 people endorsed a
SAY NO TO SERPELI