MERCHANT NAVY FUND LAUNCHED

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2013 :: RMTnews 24 R MT general secretary Bob Crow and national secretary Steve Todd attended the launch of the Merchant Navy Fund at Trinity House in London recently. The new fund is devoted to looking after UK Merchant Navy seafarers and their families. Developed as a collaborative initiative between the Merchant Navy Welfare Fund and Seafarers UK – formerly the King George’s Fund for Sailors – the fund aims to boost funding for projects providing care and support for UK merchant seafarers and their families. For shippers a leaflet about the fund has been inserted into this magazine. Steve Todd said that the union fully supported the fund as many older ratings had never had the opportunity to join a pension fund and in any case most had only been able to be contributors for a very short time. “In more recent times large numbers of ratings, many with young families, had been made redundant, with little prospect of any work. “As a result there is widespread poverty among the ex-ratings community, which is likely to worsen considerably as the impact of government and local government cutbacks began to take effect,” he said. MERCHANT FUND: left to right Steve Todd, Bob Crow, Merchant Navy Welfare Board Chief Executive Captain Parsons, Commodore Barry Bryant Director General seafarers UK and Captain Ian McNaught Deputy Master Trinity House. N ational secretary Steve Todd, industrial relations department manager Kevin Carey and membership department manager Peter Waters recently celebrated 40 years involvement each in the union. Peter and Kevin both began working for the NUR in October 1972 while Steve joined the National Union of Seamen while working as a deck boy. Steve became full time official 1988 based in Aberdeen as the shipping and offshore organiser for seven years before moving to Glasgow as regional organiser then becoming RMT national secretary in London, 10 years ago. Peter has worked in finance, secretarial department, industrial relations), assistant private secretary for 12 months before he transferred to the organisation department. He became manager of the membership department in 2002 and manager for an 18-month project to introduce new membership system. Kevin also worked in most departments before joining industrial relations in 1981, working his way up to the manager’s seat. At 57 Kevin says he had always enjoyed working in IR the most as it was the most interesting and important part of the union’s work, “but I would say that wouldn’t I?” he says with a smile. MERCHANT NAVY FUND LAUNCHED NOT OUT 120