THE lesson of recent national rail disputes is that rail unions need to work more closely together rather than competing, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch told a public meeting attended by over 50 reps from the RMT and TSSA unions on Sunday.

RMT’s national executive has proposed a prospectus for convergence with TSSA to meet challenges of new technology and long-overdue reorganisation of Britain’s railways.

TSSA representative Ian Rashbrook recalled rail union co-operation in 1993 to defend rail workers’ pensions at the time of Tory rail privatisation.