RMT BACKS SHREWSBURY 24 PETITION

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2014 :: RMTnews 6 A petition calling for justice for the Shrewsbury pickets signed by more than 100,000 people was handed into Downing Street last month. The Downing Street delegation included former building worker and actor Ricky Tomlinson, Eileen Turnbull from the Shrewsbury 24 campaign, Bob Crow, UNITE general secretary Len McLuskey, PCS general secretary Mark Sewotka and UCATT general secretary Steve Murphy. The Shrewsbury 24 Campaign petition calls for the release of government documents relating to the 1972 builders’ strike and subsequent show trials and convictions. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was clear that there was a conspiracy at the highest level in 1972 to blacklist and fit-up trade union activists. “It is time for all the papers to be released and for those that were wrongly imprisoned to be given justice at last. “RMT is proud to be supporting the campaign for justice for the Shrewsbury Pickets and with more than 100,000 signed up to the petition it is time for David Cameron and his government to take this shocking miscarriage of justice seriously and to make amends to all those denied their liberty and whose lives have been blighted in the following decades,” he said. R MT has demanded a full public inquiry into helicopter safety both inshore and offshore to establish whether there is any connection with the spate of ditching’s and fatalities in the North Sea and on land. Bond Air Services, operator of 22 Eurocopter 135 helicopters, including the Police Scotland aircraft that fell into Glasgow’s Clutha Bar, grounded its entire fleet of 135s for a short while following a fault in the fuel indicator of an air ambulance EC 135 in operation in the North West. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that following the recent incidents in the North Sea, and the tragedy at the Clutha Bar, there was now a widespread and deep-seated concern over the whole issue of helicopter safety and that can only be addressed by a full and open public inquiry. “RMT, as the union representing offshore staff, wants to know if there is any connection between the spate of incidents and that can only be established through a public inquiry. “All of those workers using the helicopters, whether they be offshore, police, ambulance, coastguard or any other industry, have a right to know that their place of work is safe and that means establishing the full facts as an absolute matter of urgency. “That means a full public inquiry into helicopter safety,” he said. Engineering giant Babcock is in talks to buy the owner of Bond Helicopters, the largest operator of aircraft in the North Sea oil and gas industry. Avincis, which is owned by private equity firm Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Italian group Investindustrial, bought Bond Air Service and Bond Offshore Helicopters from brothers Peter and Stephen Bond in 2011 for a £300 million. RMT BACKS SHREWSBURY 24 PETITION RMT DEMANDS PUBLIC ENQUIRY OVER BOND HELICOPTERS R MT has written to Transport Minister Baroness Kramer calling for immediate action to stop private train companies from dumping human sewage on the railway tracks. The minister was recently forced to admit in the House of Lords that the practice is “utterly disgusting” although her government refuse point blank to do anything about it. RMT is also demanding that the Minister and her department disclose what tonnage of human excrement is currently being dumped on Britain’s railways every year so that staff and public alike can see the true scale of the scandal. Track workers have repeatedly pointed out that some sections of the rail infrastructure are like an open sewer and that the human waste sprays out when trains are travelling at speed posing a serious health risk. Other staff in the train depots are forced to scrape the excrement from the bottom of carriages. The whole disgusting practice continues simply because the train companies are not prepared to invest a slice of their excessive profits in installing tanks and employing the staff to empty them. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that it was a shocking indictment 20 years after rail privatisation. "This rotten practice should be stopped and the profiteering train companies should be the forced to pay the price for upgrading the trains and employing staff to empty the tanks,” he said. STOP TRAIN COMPANIES DUMPING RAW SEWAGE