PRESENTATIONS

www.rmt.org.uk :: september 2006 :: RMTnews 27 M erseyrail guard Roddy Traynor received his 25-year badge recently at a meeting of the Wirral branch. Pictured left to right are Wirral branch secretary Stuart Harris, Roddy and branch chair Peter Kane. M ike Furneaux was presented with his 40-year RMT long service badge recently by assistant general secretary Mike Cash at a meeting of the South Devon bus branch in Torquay. Mike joined Devon General, as it was known, in 1966 many years before privatisation, “when buses were buses and conductor was boss”. Mike has driven all kinds of buses in his time and after privatisation in 1986 he took charge of “horrible little mini- buses”. However, he finishes his driving days in charge of Olympians and Tridents around the bay. Without moving from his beloved Torbay, he has worked in four different depots from Newton Road, Brixham, Regents Close and finally Paignton. “It’s been a great life on the buses and made many friends and hold even more memories,” he said. E rnie Evans and James Edwards were presented with their 40-year badges by general secretary Bob Crow recently after serving a lifetime in the rail industry. The pair are both already recipients of British Empire Medals for services to the rail industry. Ernie joined the railways in 1953 as a guard in the Birmingham area and held many positions within the union including branch secretary. James joined up in 1947 working for BRB First Engineering he played many roles within the union including Wolverhampton branch secretary from 1974 to 1992 and gained a TUC gold badge in 1995. R MT said farewell to finance manager Allan Craig recently as he retired after 31 years with the union. Allan started with the NUR as a clerk on April 7 1975 but first joined the union in 1964 when he joined British Rail. Being a Scot, Allan was a regular contributor to many Burns Night celebrations. Allan won’t be sitting around in retirement as, apart from sitting on Tribunals, he now organises sports tours around Europe. Alan is a keen bowls player and has already hosted bowls tours to Spain and Cyprus so in the future he will no doubt be spending many weeks sunning himself free of charge. R MT president Tony Donaghey attended Orpington branch recently to award a 40-year badge to Brian Willoughby, a signaller from London Bridge ASC, and a 25-year badge to EC member Paul Burton. Also track worker Mark Messias, who was unable to attend due to illness, was awarded a 25-year badge. Dear editor, Currently, I pay £10 every four weeks for my membership of RMT, which equates to £520 per annum. What do I get in return for that? I had cause to ring RMT’s 24-hour helpline which, because of the recorded message please try again later, I did several times over two days. Then I rang my local rep and left a message on his answer phone. Then I rang our local headquarters at Bristol and spoke to someone about my problem. He told me someone would ring me back and no-one did. The same thing happened last year. What is going on? The union is supposed to help me in time of need. Where are they? What am I paying for? Yours sincerely, Keiron Curtis Editors note: RMT News is sorry to hear Mr Curtis is unsatisfied with the service the union has provided and hopes that this issue can be resolved. However, we would like readers to note that the four weekly membership rate is in fact £12 making an annual rate of £156, not £520. The RMT helpline is also not open 24-hours as suggested. MIKE’S 40 YEARS ‘ON THE BUSES’ LETTERS FAREWELL TO ALLAN CRAIG JIMMY AND ERNIE RECEIVE AWARDS AWARDS AT ORPINGTON BRANCH 25-YEAR BADGE FOR RODDY