LETTERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2014 :: RMTnews 29 LETTERS E ast Sussex Coastway branch marked the unveiling of a new banner with a number of long service awards. Guest speakers also included ITF inspector Darren Proctor, Jeff Slee, Gary Hassell, assistant general secretary Steve Hedley and EC member Mike Sargent. Members receiving from left to right: 10 years badges were awarded to to A Lewis, P Jephcote, S Arfaoui, J littlejohn, Richard Parkhurst, Steven Quinnell, David Thomas, Geoffrey Medhurst, N Button, K Burton, A Fothergill, S Breakwell, T Griffiths, R Mccue, A Goddard. A 25 year badge was awarded to J Morgan and D Robin, D Boyd, Patrick Kinsella and Glen Lipscombe all received 40year badges. Dear editor, I have been involved in investigations representing members when near misses, injuries or sadly death has occurred. I have also witnessed a suicide right in front of my eyes. I write this because, as far as I am aware, there is no post- incident, co-ordinated, structured support for members in Network Rail, apart from 'Care First', which is usually offered within the first 48 hours when members are in a very raw state and confused. For this reason ‘Care First’ is not equipped or has the skills to deal with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD. The company does not have a section that deals with post incident care or, indeed, knows how to deal with those involved and each area or department treat incidents and their staff differently. It is not the fault of supervisors and managers, rather the lack of the special knowledge needed to deal with people after an incident. PTSD can be severely disabling and was officially recognised in 1980. It is an anxiety disorder caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events. The symptoms are severe and persistent. It can develop immediately or weeks or months even years after and is estimated to affect one in three people who have had a traumatic experience. Whilst it appears that TOCs and LUL seem to look after their staff very well and have staff trained in dealing with mental trauma. But those who actually witness the incidents on the track get little or no support and in many cases are sent back to work within days or made to sit in their depot stewing. There is a laissez-faire attitude to any after care for members later on. I successfully fought the company for better treatment for the post-traumatic stress I suffered. There was an 18 month waiting list on the NHS for cognitive behavioural therapy, but that is far too long to put up with the symptoms. There is a very successful system developed in America and Ireland for those who experienced PTSD. This is called Eye Movement Desensitisation and Retraining (EMDR) which replicates the dream state and helps you deal with what you experienced. I write this, because yet again I am involved with an inquiry and our members are treated with disrespect and offered very little or no specialist help, other than care first. Many of our members go out of the industry after witnessing distressing incidents because of a lack of help. We must therefore push for better treatment and a better structured supportive system of after care. I would be grateful if members could contact me with information of how their various companies deal with these issues. On Hewitt.g@sky.com Regards, Greg Hewitt Brighton & Hove City branch Dear editor, I have just read Elaine Smith's opinion page in October's RMT News in which she whines on about the SNP government in Scotland granting the Scotrail franchise to Abellio. This union knows all about the madness that is rail privatisation but for her to suggest that New Labour would have done any different is disingenuous. After all income tax is about the only new power that New Labour want devolved to the Scottish Parliament, for her to suggest sweeping new powers are in the pipeline is false. Real changes for the public good could have been possible after a Yes result in the independence referendum but that golden opportunity has been lost, mainly due to dishonest unionist politicians and the state media lying to the electorate. Labour’s “Powers For A Purpose” document from March 2014, outlining the party’s proposals for further devolution, spends just two of its 298 pages discussing the subject of the railways, with most of the content cribbed from a Co-Op Party paper last year. It supports some vague notion of a not-for-profit franchise – starting AFTER the end of the period just awarded to Abellio. In other words, Labour would have done exactly what the Scottish government has just done – given the contract from 2015 to 2025 to the best tender from the available private-sector bidders (public ownership being currently forbidden by UK law, in the shape of a 1993 act not repealed by Labour during 13 years of Westminster power). Labour would have done nothing differently to the SNP for at least 11 years, which in political terms might as well be forever. Readers will, I am quite certain, be just as astonished as me to see them bleating piously about it anyway. Regards, Jeff Kirk Edinburgh No.1 branch Dear editor, I am disappointed with the front page of October's RMT News. The problem with rail franchises is not that they are "75 per cent foreign-owned" but that they are 96 per cent privately-owned. British owners like Virgin or Stagecoach are no better than companies like Deutsche Bahn. They are all in it for profit, whatever their nationality. RMT rightly points out that companies like DB use the profit extracted from railways in this country to subsidise fares in Europe. Is that any worse than using it to subsidise Richard Branson's billionaire lifestyle or Brian Souter's homophobic propaganda campaigns? I don't think it is. We don't want these franchises transferred to a British private owner - we want them brought back into public ownership. So let's concentrate on that, not on the current owners' nationality. Yours in solidarity, Janine Booth Central Line East branch EAST SUSSEX COASTWAY CELEBRATION NETWORK RAIL MUST DEAL WITH TRAUMA NEW LABOUR WOULD HAVE RE-PRIVATISED SCOTRAIL FOREIGN OWNERSHIP NOT AN ISSUE