OILC MEMBERS VOTE OVERWHELMINGLY TO JOIN RMT

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: march 2008 :: RMTnews 7 O ILC and RMT are to become a single organisation after the Offshore Industry Liaison Committee’s members voted overwhelmingly to become the offshore section of RMT from May 1 2008. In a postal ballot, OILC members voted by 807 to 207 in favour of the transfer of engagements to RMT, which had been recommended by the organisation’s annual conference in Aberdeen last October. The move had already been endorsed by an RMT special general meeting, held in Doncaster last March. “This is an historic day for trade unionism in the offshore sector,” said OILC general secretary Jake Molloy, who will become lead officer for the new RMT offshore section. “Joining forces with a union built on grass-roots involvement and which fights for workers’ rights can do nothing but good in a sector that is notoriously difficult to organise. “Together we will have the resources and the experience to organise for better safety and to win better pay and conditions and job security for offshore workers,” Jake said. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that move made sound industrial sense for two unions organising in the same sector and with the same outlook to join forces. “Bringing our two unions together will give us more industrial clout and can only benefit members of both. “’Unity is strength’ is not just a slogan, it is the single phrase that sums up why we are trade unionists, and today trade unionism in the offshore sector has taken a huge stride forwards,” Bob Crow said. OILC organises offshore engineering, drilling, construction and support workers, and was set up following the 1988 Piper Alpha disaster, which claimed 167 lives. RMT already organises divers and catering workers in the offshore industry and recently won its more than 900 North Sea divers and support staff a 45 per cent pay rise after a ten-day, all-out strike. Norwegian energy union Industri Energi secretary Leif Sande congratulated both unions on the merger. “I am sure that this merger presents a very significant opportunity to organise effectively across the Norwegian and UK sectors,” he said. OILC MEMBERS VOTE OVERWHELMINGLY TO JOIN RMT