BOB CROW NATIONAL EDUCATION CENTRE OPENS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2015 :: RMTnews 16 The sun shone on the RMT national education centre last month as several hundred RMT members, guests and friends were welcomed to Doncaster to mark the renaming of the centre in honour of former RMT general secretary Bob Crow. Bob’s legacy to RMT reaches far and wide across the trade union today and will into the future no doubt. One huge part of that legacy was Bob’s vision to open, develop and expand the education centre situated close to the centre of Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Its purpose was to provide the very best trade union education and training for our members, representatives, officers and officials. This vision for educating activists at all levels was to ensure that all members had access to the very best RMT reps, officers and officials it could provide. Over those years since 2006 hundreds of RMT ‘students’ have attended and completed a wide range of courses aimed precisely to fulfil the ambition of providing those very best RMT- trained representatives for members in the many workplaces across the country. As general secretary, Bob continued to drive the expansion and development of the centre to the excellent facility it is today. It makes a monumental contribution to the education and organising work of our union which means RMT is a stronger and more effective trade union. Tragically in 2014 Bob Crow unexpectedly passed away and the entire trade union movement here and abroad lost a real champion and fearless fighter for workers around the world. The union’s annual general meeting of 2014 decided that Bob’s contribution to the union would not go unacknowledged, in particular his trade union education work, and it was agreed that the RMT National Education Centre would be renamed in his honour. That is why hundreds gathered in the sunshine in the front gardens of the Doncaster site to mark the occasion. In contributions from the RMT president Peter Pinkney and the general secretary Mick Cash, told those gathered of Bob’s determination and hard work to establish and develop the education centre. The event was honoured to also welcome Nikki Hoarau, Bob’s partner, and family to the event and perhaps the most poignant and moving contribution was made by Bob’s daughter Natasha who made clear how important her Dad felt about trade union education and how proud all of his family were of him. It was fitting that Nikki and her daughters Tanya and Natasha unveiled the new centre sign in the garden renamed and open for business as usual, just as Bob would have wanted. The general secretary and the president accompanied by Bob’s family and close friends visited the centre’s library to see a specially commissioned piece of artwork unveiled – bust of the BOB CROW NATIONAL EDUCATION CENTRE OPENS RMT education officer Andy Gilchrist reports on the day the union renamed its education centre in Doncaster after former general secretary Bob Crow