RECOGNITION CAMPAIGN FOR FORTH BRIDGE WORKERS

RMTnews :: march 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 12 T he campaign for recognition at Palmers, one of the contractors working on the Forth Rail Bridge, has been on going for eight months and is at an important stage. RMT has already asked the company for a voluntary union recognition agreement and have involved ACAS to help verify membership levels. The union is hopeful that Palmers will voluntarily recognise the legitimate aspirations of the workforce to have RMT represent them for collective bargaining purposes. Over the last few months, since the original approach to the union by workers who believed that their issues and grievances were not being dealt with the way they wanted by management, the union has been building RMT membership and organisation. This has been done by leafleting the workers before and after work, holding regular meetings with workers to allow issues to be discussed and updates on how the recognition claim is progressing and newsletters have been posted to keep members as up-to-date as possible. The involvement of the branch, regional council, regional organiser and organising unit working together to help these new members organise themselves has been crucial in getting the union to the stage where it can be confident in being able to take the company through the formal recognition process if necessary. Palmers is part of an alliance of contractors who work on the Forth Bridge and RMT has members with these other contractors and is campaigning to build membership amongst these companies. It is important to remember that pre-privatisation all the work on the Forth Bridge was done by RMT/NUR members and the union must ensure that support is given to members in their campaign to get the employment protection they deserve. RMT organising meetings with LGV driver members have been looking at major issues and concerns regarding the current operation of the Working Time Regulations. The way Periods of Availability (POA) are being used to cover all unplanned as well as planned stoppages is shocking and unacceptable to the union. The extent to which this as happened tied in with the opt-out as meant that, for many members, the working week is as long as it was before the regulations came in. The need for this evidence to be placed before the review is obvious and the regulations have not been effective in reducing the working hours of many of our LGV driver members. RMT will raise these issues with employers to achieve change to the long hour’s culture and abuse of POA through negotiation whilst campaigning to have the legislation changed. It is important that members let the union know of these abuses so that we can put forward a strong case as possible for change. ORGANISING Donald Graham from the Organising Unit reports that we have made a great breakthrough with Trunk drivers who work for City Link. Many have now joined the other and many more are saying their going to join. Relief RMT regional organiser Brian Whitehead stood outside the company’s Hub at midnight in the pouring rain with a team from the Org Unit to be on hand to give advice and support to members on the Drivers’ staff council who were meeting management. This type of effort is necessary the length and breadth of the country to ensure the union is at its strongest. The union is gearing up for the next round of organising weeks and RMT needs the maximum possible input from members to make them a success. National organising co-ordinator Alan Pottage said that it will be the fifth year running that the organising unit has helped regions to kick start campaigns and hoped all Regional Councils will build on their previous successes. “The best outcomes come about as a direct result of the effort that’s put into these important weeks,” he said. Alan said that full support is given to everyone getting involved so members who would like to help us recruit but are a bit nervous have nothing to fear. “There is no better team than RMT activists pitching in together and we’d love to see loads of new faces getting involved. “We especially want elected RMT representatives getting stuck in because our reps live and breath the union in the workplace so who better to get our positive message across?,” he said. TRAINING FOR NEW REPS Training days have also been planned for new reps within their own regions. This training has been designed to give instant support and advice. “Workplace reps are vitally important to the building of our union and it is therefore essential that we continue to give them maximum support,” said Alan Organising Weeks and Training Days 2007 REGIONAL COUNCIL ORGANISING WEEK ONE DAY INTRO TWO DAY TRAINING Scotland March 5-9 April 12 May 31/June 1 Man and NW April 16-20 May 3 June 6/7 S.Wales and S.West April 30-May 4 June 7 August 7/8 North East May 14-18 June 18 July 25/26 Wessex June 11-15 July 17 August 28/29 Yorks and Lincs July 9-13 August 16 October 9/10 South East August 20-24 September 27 October 30/31 London and Anglia September 10-14 October 23 November 27/28 Midlands October 15-19 November 20 December 18/19 N.West and N.Wales June 25-29 July 30 September 4/5 RECOGNITION CAMPAIGN FOR FORTH BRIDGE WORKERS Organising Road Freight ORGANISING WEEKS 2007