PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: june 2010 :: RMTnews 9 It is an absolute privilege to have been elected as the Member of Parliament for Hull East. East Hull is an area that I grew up in and have lived all of my life. We have a proud tradition in Hull in that we have a tendency to elect Labour Members of Parliament that understand the need for decent public services. This for me is crucial given the development of the new CON/DEM government. I can see the faces on the members of this coalition government and I can tell readers that many of them whether Lib Dem or Tory are positively wetting themselves at the prospect of making savage cuts in the public sector. That is why I relish the opportunity of working closely with RMT and other trade unions to protect jobs, to ensure safety at work and to protect trade union rights across the board. It is now clear to me that whilst I am very proud of the achievements of the 13 years of our Labour government we should have perhaps gone further to entrench trade union rights and overturn anti-Trade Union legislation from the previous Tory government. The weeks, months and years ahead will be testing as a newly elected MP on the opposition benches. I fear that there will be many examples of workers suffering the pain for the gain of the greedy city bankers’ reckless mistakes in the last few years. I am particularly honoured to be associated with the trade union movement, especially given my father’s commitments to the Labour Party and the labour movement as a full time union officer for the National Union of Seaman in Hull and then RMT after those unions merged as a direct result of the last Tory government’s savage attack on workers and trade unions up and down the country. And, together with my other colleagues in the RMT Parliamentary group, I hope to be taking an active part in pressing the case for seafarer’s employment rights. This has taken on a new urgency with the publication of an independent review by the new government which proposes to do away with the disgraceful legislation which allows seafarers on UK flagged ships to be paid different rates of pay on the basis of their nationality. The review recommends “outlawing the practice of nationality based pay differentials for seafarer’s altogether” and correctly states that in respect of continued discrimination there is “no reason to make a special case for the shipping industry.” If the reviews findings are accepted by the new Government this will represent a massive victory for RMT. What is important to note, however, is that the review was commissioned by the previous Labour government following a long and tenacious campaign by the union and its Parliamentary group. Instead of simply adopting the reviews recommendations, the new government has given interested parties two weeks to comment on the reviews findings and we can be absolutely certain that shipping employers will be banging on ministers doors and telling them to ditch the review altogether or at the very least adopt significantly weaker measures. I urge members to lobby their MPs to make sure new government adopts the reviews recommendations in full. With best wishes, Karl Turner Karl Turner is the Labour MP for Kingston upon Hull East Parliamentary column JUSTICE FOR SEAFARERS