Taxi lobby of Parliament 2nd July.

Start: 02/07/2013 16:00

End: 02/07/2013 18:00

From RMT General Secretary Bob Crow

The Law Commission is currently reviewing all legislation relating to taxi and private hire vehicles. Whilst this review, which officials claim is designed to simplify the legislation, could potentially deregulate the industry and as such is a threat to members’ livelihoods, it also presents us with a number of opportunities.

The interim statement of the Law Commission does not commit to legally defining plying for hire, however, it does acknowledge that a two-tier system must remain in place.

RMT is participating in a lobby of Parliament in order to ensure that MPs are aware of our views on any changes to legislation. This lobby is a joint lobby with both Unite and the GMB.

The rally will take place in Committee Room 10 from 4pm to 6pm on Tuesday 2nd July. Members are encouraged to arrange to meet their Member of Parliament on the day, in order to express their opposition to any further deregulation of the trade. In order to lobby your MP please arrive at 1.30pm.

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RMT slams plans set out by London Tories to allow commercial sponsorship of tube stations as “a blueprint to destroy London’s transport heritage in the name of private profit.”

RMT has warned that the plan, already dismissed as unfeasible by tube managers, would see stations renamed and staff forced to wear uniforms branded in the corporate sponsors logos. The tube map, and the heritage of London’s transport services, would be ripped to pieces to ram the sponsors names down passengers throats.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“One minute the London Tories are trying to ban workers’ rights on the underground the next they are trying to turn the whole network into one giant marketing opportunity for their big-business backers, we can only speculate what garbage they will spew out next.

“Of course the Tories couldn’t care less about the tube map and the heritage of our public transport services, in their “Greed is Good” ethos Budweiser Baker Street and McDonalds Oxford Circus make perfect sense.

“Although tube managers have rightly dismissed the proposal as unworkable that doesn’t mean that these jokers will leave it at that. If they think RMT members are going to parade around as advertising hoardings for a bunch of tax-dodging capitalists they should think again.”