RMT OPENS NEW EDUCATION CENTRE IN DONCASTER

RMTnews :: january 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 10 RMT’s national education centre will be used to train workplace and health-and-safety reps as well as branch officials, regional and national officers and staff. “This is an exciting moment for a growing union and enables us to offer IT training and other education facilities in a comfortable residential centre” said RMT general secretary Bob Crow. “With a growing membership and more and more new reps to train, opening a new national education facility was rightly identified by the RMT executive as a priority for the union. “The labour movement has always aimed to educate as well as to agitate and organise, and this splendid new centre gives a tremendous boost to an essential function,” Bob said. MUA leader Paddy Crumlin said that he was “pleased as mustard” to open an institute of learning for working people. “At a time of unprecedented attacks on wages and conditions everywhere, it is important to remember that the working classes around the world have won many battles because they equipped themselves with the tools to fight unjust laws. “Globalisation has led to a polarisation of wealth and power and trade union rights are under attack but this house of learning will equip hundreds of reps to resist at the shop floor, where it matters,” he said. Anne Scargill said that it was a privilege to unveil the plaque on the education centre in a Doncaster, which has a huge working class history particularly around the mining industry. Centrally located and less than a mile from Doncaster station, the former nursing home building was chosen with ease of access in mind for transport workers from all over Britain. The building has undergone six months of renovation overseen by Mick Hardacre. It now boasts a fully-equipped classroom suite with full IT facilities, 20 bedrooms, living and dining rooms, a kitchen, garages and a bar. Arrangements for under-five child-care have also been made with a local nursery less than 500 yards from the centre. *The RMT National Education Centre is at 47-49 Thorne Road, Doncaster, DN1 2EX and a full virtual tour is available on the RMT website. RMT’s new state-of-the-art residential education centre in Doncaster was recently opened by Marine Union of Australia national secretary Paddy Crumlin and Women Against Pit Closures co- founder Anne Scargill RMT OPENS NEW EDUCATION CENTRE IN DONCASTER STAFF: Rita Hickman, Jenny Derx, RMT education officer Ray Spry-Shute, Bob Crow, Kate Lee and Barbara Collinson STATE-OF-THE-ART: Education officer Ray Spry-Shute gets to grips with the new IT system