CREDIT UNION HITS £2 MILLION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may 2011 :: RMTnews 19 Payday loan firms such as Wonga.com claim to be responsible lenders. They advertise on national television in the knowledge that there are people who are so desperate for money that they will pay over the odds for a short term loan, even as much as a representative APR (annual percentage rate) of 4,214 per cent. A loan of £400 would cost a staggering £517.48 to redeem 28 days later – next payday for the majority of RMT members. That’s a massive £117.48 in interest.1 It is amazing that less than 30 years ago, BBC and ITV refused to broadcast football matches if logos were worn on shirts. Yet it is now almost taken for granted that there will be advertising at nearly every televised event in the sporting calendar. Advertising is accepted so much that scarcely anyone bothers about the fact that Blackpool FC is sponsored by payday loans rip-off firm Wonga.com. Recently The Guardian published an article including a table showing that Blackpool had three of the ten most deprived areas in England. In other words The Seasiders are sponsored by an outfit that preys on some of the most vulnerable people in our society. RESPONSIBLE LENDING AND BORROWING Contrast the RMT Credit Union’s approach. As an RMT member you can join the Credit Union by saving as little as £5 a month. That’s less than the cost of a newspaper each day and the money still belongs to you – we call it a shareholding. Our first aim is to encourage members to save we have just reached the £2 million mark! After three months you can ask for a loan of up to three times your savings. After a year, you can borrow up to five times what you have saved. RMT Credit Union is regulated by the Financial Services Authority. The law states that we cannot charge more than two per cent a month on the outstanding balance. In practice, the maximum rate that we charge is one per cent a month on the outstanding balance or 12.68 per cent APR and there are reduced rates of 9.9 per cent and 7.9per cent available to members. RMT Credit Union doesn’t pay interest. It pays a dividend after all running expenses and Corporation Tax have been met. Last December we paid a dividend of two per cent on balances at September 30. This was much better than the advertised interest rates of most high street banks and building societies during the twelve months to September 2010; they were paying less than one per cent. We also have other savings products including a Summer Club and a Christmas Club as well as a Junior savings club for children of RMT Credit Union members, details of which are available at the back of this magazine services against a backdrop of increasing demand and front-line cuts." Labour MP Ian Lavery said that hundreds of millions of pounds of taxpayers' money was being pumped into a totally fragmented rail system while billions were being syphoned off in dividends. 1 Figures correct at 23.04.2011 – Source company website. CREDIT UNION HITS £2 MILLION! RMT Credit Union looks at loans companies like Wonga.com which are preying on some of the poorest people in the country, charging interest rates of over 4,000 per cent posted, opening the floodgates to disciplinary cases sparked from behind a cloak of secrecy by individuals looking to make mischief with no come back whatsoever. As the mover said: “what we are seeing is technology being used to allow our members to be victimised on the basis of malicious and anonymous tweets...” Daren Ireland, explained that on some Virgin services managers are handing out business cards inviting the public to complain about staff using social media; “This is cyber-bullying of staff instigated by the Train Operating Companies and we need to stop it.” The emergency motion was carried unanimously. A fraternal address by Lee Barron from the CWU in the Midlands brought home the importance of cross-union solidarity in the teeth of the common attack that trade union members are facing under the ConDem government. A motion on violence from Warrington and District also drew unanimous support with one delegate outlining a specific case where a member of staff was assaulted on board a train and even though the train had been stopped and the police were called there was immediate and sustained pressure from the train operator to get the unit moving again regardless of the seriousness of the incident. Assistant general secretary Pat Sikorski explained the background to a successful emergency motion calling for full support for sacked and victimised underground drivers Eamonm Lynch and Arwyn Thomas and the callous disregard by the company for the interim relief findings at the Employment Tribunal. Pat held up the drivers cases as the most blatant victimisation of members on the grounds of trade union activity that you could ever expect to see - and as an example of the lengths that that bosses will go to in their efforts to try to break the strength of union organisation.