ORGANISING CATERING WORKERS

ORGANISING CATERING WORKERS RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2011 :: RMTnews 26 Alan Pottage, head of RMT’s Organising and Education outlines the union’s campaign to recruit Rail Gourmet and Select Service Partners workers Activists from the union’s catering grades conference met with assistant general secretary Pat Sikorski, regional organiser Brian Whitehead, the organising unit and the national executive recently to work out a strategy that would see organisation amongst catering workers greatly improve. The workforce employed by Rail Gourmet and Select Service Partners have been prioritised because as it has been a difficult area to organise these workers in the past. One big problem is the high turnover of staff. After all, that’s what happens in a low pay sector. Many workers don’t hang about when a slightly better job becomes available. Incidentally, RMT always argues that improving pay and conditions is the best way for an employer to avoid a high turnover of staff. If you pay your workers a decent wage and treat them with dignity and respect then off course they will not want to leave. It should also be remembered that the union has members within the catering industry with over thirty years RMT membership so there is definitely still a hard core of catering workers who have worked since the days of British Rail and Travellers Fare. WORKPLACE VISITS It is obvious that the only way the union can make progress is to ensure that branches commit themselves to monthly activities in the various workplaces. One- off visits are less effective. It’s common sense really. RMT gets its strength from our local members so it’s vitally important that local branches commit to organising all workers within their area of responsibility. We know high turnover is a problem. But the solution is not to give up and not attempt to build our organisation so we need to ensure monthly visits take place. If our branches do this we can conquer the problem.