LETTERS

RMTnews :: june 2005 28 Dear editor, Just a note to say that Glasgow Shipping Branch contributed £50 to the production of “From the Calton to Catalonia” (May RMT news) not £500 as reported. RMT nationally contributed £500 to this excellent play. The play’s main character James Maley, who worked in the rail industry, and ex-Seafarer Bob Doyle are the last two remaining International Brigaders who are commemorated on the RMT plaque unveiled last year and displayed in Unity House. Next month, on the July 13 2005 sees the centenary of the birth of Jack Coward, who is also commemorated on the plaque as an anti fascist and NUS activist who fought in Spain, and wrote an account of the Civil War in his book “Back from the Dead”. Jack Coward, who was from Merseyside, died on October 16 1970. Jim McKnight (who by the way was pictured right not left) had his son Ross playing one of the lead roles in the production. Stuart Hyslop Glasgow Shipping Branch Secretary Dear editor, I am writing to say thank you for the extra money of £125 the union has given our family from the orphan fund to mark 125 years of the fund. The money is going on books for my son Andrew and towards a laptop computer to assist in his school work. He can only use the library for one hour a day so he needs the computer at home to do his homework. Thanks very much for this contribution, it will help greatly. Yours sincerely, Joyce Jones Dear editor, I would like to take issue with Alex Holden (RMT News May 05 Save Oldham Loop). As a union we should support light rail tram schemes in UK cities. The Nottingham Express Transit tram route, which opened in March 2004, is a modern sleek, passenger friendly system, which has revolutionised travel in the area. Running alongside the Central Trains Robin Hood line as far as Hucknall, with a spur to a major park and ride site on former colliery land, the NET is testimony as to what public transport should be in the 21st century. It’s a far cry from earlier “shake, rattle and roll” trams which can now be seen in the Crich Tramway Museum near Ambergate, Derbyshire. Although we in RMT are fearful of the PFI/PPP under which the NET was built and we are still waiting for the government to sanction lines two and three, we can grasp the nettle and recruit those tram workers into the union. We should also raise the profile of cities that wish to take up tram schemes. Through the RMT Parliamentary group, my own MP Alan Simpson in Nottingham South has taken issue with the Department of Transport to get ministers to agree to fund the NET extensions and stop prevaricating. Yours David Hardy LETTERS