PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: january 2010 :: RMTnews “It got to the point where I had an aversion to needles and I had difficulty sleeping. Beyond the psychological impact I also had to give up my coaching position due to the risk of contamination and my wife and I had to put plans to try for another child on hold.” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “Employers must provide their employees with a safe working environment and First Great Western patently failed to do that. The injury he sustained had a substantial effect on his life. By providing the correct protective clothing and ensuring carriages are kept clean this injury could have been avoided.” Sarah Patten from Thompsons Solicitors said: “Needlestick injuries cause a great deal of physical pain and mental anguish. This client in particular was forced to take six months off work. “The agonising wait for the test results had a massive impact on his daily life and on his plans to enlarge his family.” CRUSHED FOOT An RMT member had his foot crushed at Hull Paragon Station while he was taking a wheelchair ramp down from its mounting for a disabled customer. As he was moving the chair the ramp clasps came undone causing the ramp to swing open, squashing his left foot. The company’s insurers refused to negotiate a settlement so RMT lawyers began court proceedings. As a result settlement terms were then agreed and the member was awarded £3,500. YORKS TRAIN CONDUCTOR COMPENSATED FOR BROKEN WRIST A train conductor broke her wrist after she stepped off a train and slipped on an icy platform that hadn’t been gritted. She suffered a fracture to the scaphoid bone on her right wrist. The union commenced court proceedings on behalf of the member after the other side refused to agree a settlement. I am delighted and honoured to be elected as your president for the next three years. Thank you for the kind messages of congratulations, advice and best wishes from RMT members too numerous to mention. I want to thank all candidates in the election for being part of an essential, if sometimes gruelling contest, which reconfirms our union’s vital democracy. I would also like to pay tribute to John Leach, my predecessor as RMT president. John’s legacy can be read by all RMT members in the highly recommended new pamphlet 'Pulling Together - A Popular History of RMT' available from your branch secretary or from Unity House. Pulling Together is exactly what we need to do this year in order to defend each other. This time of year is always a testing for transport workers, but this past month has been exceptional with the worst winter weather since 1947. Transport workers on land, sea and offshore who deliver services in the face of an onslaught of snow, ice and freezing temperatures face the added difficulty of dealing with the usual difficulties associated with the festive season. I wish a rapid recovery to full health to my mate Mostyn Harris, a train driver from RMT Cardiff Rail branch, who was hospitalised in a road traffic accident while returning home after finishing his shift on Christmas Eve. For Mostyn and others injured or sick at this time of year RMT membership offers real protection through legal representation, accident benefit or the RMT Credit Union as well as being in a fighting trade union. 2010 is not even a month old, but already is marked out as a critical year for RMT members. Last year’s global economic crisis - the product of 30 years of deregulated capitalism - has bequeathed a legacy of mass unemployment, crippling debt and attacks on the public services. All the main political parties are promising cuts in public spending, which means real suffering for service users and real pay cuts for public sector workers. The private sector consultants and PFI scams systematically used to ransack our schools, hospitals and public transport services for decades are never mentioned when politicians line up to promise spending cuts. And of course, bankers must have their bonuses, or they might take their valuable skills abroad. Perish the thought. The response of our labour movement to these disasters is critical. If trade unions bend the knee to the demands of bankers and politicians for belt-tightening by the working class and collude in continued appeasement of the super-rich, we will fail. The resolute response of RMT signallers, who defied Network Rail’s imposition of rosters on colleagues in the new South Wales Control Centre by taking 12 days of strike action recently, is an example to the whole trade union movement of how to stand up and be counted. Network Rail, the largest employer of RMT members in the rail industry, has embarked on a course of so-called “efficiency savings” at the behest of a government regulator intent on shoring up its credit ratings. These crude cuts put lives at risk by deliberately understaffing a complex and fragile industry. RMT’s General Grades Committee has taken an historic decision to fight these job cuts and I promise you that the full resources of our union’s leadership will be mobilised to win this battle. I wish all of you, your families and friends a healthy and successful New Year. Our future will be assured if we pull together and stand our ground. Solidarity wishes, Alex Gordon President’s column PULLING TOGETHER