PRESIDENTS’ COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: october 2008 :: RMTnews 33 President’s column I recently had the pleasure of visiting many of our members who are employed on the Caledonian MacBrayne Hebridean and Clyde Ferries in Scotland and I found the experience extremely informative and constructive. I joined the general secretary, national secretary Steve Todd and port committee chair George Lonie on the trip and we were able to visit eleven ships for meetings with members. We also attended a special Oban branch meeting as attended by regional organiser Ian Macintyre. There are many issues affecting seafaring members. The current pay negotiations were high on the list and were reported back to the members. Union negotiators were able to obtain the all-important views of members affected. Also the never-ending threat of privatisation through the tendering of the services demanded by EU competition rules was discussed. These threats to our member’s pensions and jobs and to the provision of these very important publicly-run life-line ferries for island communities are very well understood by our members who work on them. Over £17 million of Scottish taxpayers' money has already been wasted on a tendering process in which Cal Mac was the only bidder after private sector rivals realised they could not squeeze enough money from the service. That process was completely unnecessary, wasteful and damaging and the money should have been invested in building even better ferry services for the island communities. Yet, instead of an inquiry to the why so much public money was wasted on tendering, Brussels has launched an inquiry into the subsidies for Caledonian MacBrayne's lifeline ferry services. This was prompted by a Scottish National Party MEP and immediately applauded by privateer operators who would like nothing better than to pocket public subsidies that are quite properly going to a publicly-owned and controlled ferry company. At the end of the day it should be no business of the European Union what or how much subsidy is paid by Scottish taxpayers to maintain their own lifeline ferry services. We made it clear that the union will resist these attacks and fight to defend the ferry services as well as the jobs of our members who work on them. I always enjoy visiting members in their workplaces as this face-to-face contact is invaluable for me as president and I know this view is shared by all our national officials. I also hope it is useful for the members that we meet. I was particularly pleased to be able to meet RMT reps at Cal Mac. The day-to-day role these reps and, for that matter, all local reps in any work place is one of the most important features of our union. Our Health and safety reps, port committee members and the local branch serving Cal Mac members do an excellent job. I know they do this crucial job mainly in their own time. Why? Because they understand that it is only through organisation and unity that workers can be properly represented and defended. It is important to give as much support as possible to front line reps as, all too often, they can end up in the firing line from management. Often they are at the receiving end of management resentment at the union’s determination to stand up against injustice and bullying and for staff to be treated in a decent manner or improved health and safety. We have a number of cases at present, indeed at time of writing I shall be attending a branch meeting in support of a victimised rep and three other colleagues. We as a union need to give our full and total support to these reps. Whenever the boss comes for the rep they come for us all and our unity is our strength. John Leach MEETING CAL MAC MEMBERS VISIT: Davie Whiteside and Brian Reynolds with John Leach, Bob Crow and Steve Todd