PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: february 2016 :: RMTnews 21 President’s column As RMT president there are many occasions when you feel honoured and humbled to be representing members. None more so than earlier this month at the 12th anniversary of the Tebay rail tragedy, the final commemoration in memory of four workers that left their families to do a night’s work and never returned. We now finally have secondary protection but until there is an end to the culture of profit before safety, with fragmented, labour-only agencies that are still using zero- hour contracts the potential for further disasters will remain. I’m being asked more and more about our position on EU membership? RMT has a long-standing policy for EU withdrawal. In fact the NUR first called for this country’s withdrawal from the then European Economic Community at our AGM in Torquay back in 1979. This is because the EU stands for privatisation, the removal of democracy and the transferal of power from the member states to unaccountable EU institutions. That is why Bob Crow set up No2EU in 2008 in order to alert the labour movement about the true nature of the EU and who today can say he was wrong, particularly looking at the state of Greece? Under the Lisbon Treaty EU laws and legislation were changed from an intergovernmental system to a super state and we never had the opportunity to discuss this Treaty before ratification. If we want to leave the EU it is the Lisbon Treaty which must be discussed not the charade of the trivial reforms now on the table in Brussels. The government is also pushing support for the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Treaty (TTIP) a corporate charter for exploitation if ever there was one. The TUC and most trade unions oppose TTIP. But these same institutions support the EU which is a complete contradiction. You cannot be both against TTIP and for the EU. Since the 1975 referendum the deindustrialisation of Britain is all but complete, we used to have a coal industry, a steel industry, shipbuilding and manufacturing and traded across the world. These industries were the backbone of the economy which created wealth to pay for all the public services such as the NHS, education and the welfare state. Today there are around two million unemployed in Britain and many of those are young people. We have soup kitchens and food banks. The alternative to EU membership is to have an economy based on manufacturing, associated industries and to trade across the world including European states, instead of an economy based on the financial and banking sectors which got us into deep water in addition to being locked into a crisis-ridden EU. Thank goodness we did not join the euro. We need to invest in our industries, including the transport sector and bring it back into public ownership, something that the EU will fight every inch of the way. We will also need a merchant navy to carry the goods and a ship-building industry to make these ships. The only way to oppose TTIP and EU legislation from Brussels and free movement of everything is to vote to leave the EU. Offshore members have been at the sharp end for some time now, with upwards of 100,000 jobs already lost in the industry. Our team in Scotland has helped set up of the OCG which consist of RMT, GMB, BALPA, Nautilus and the STUC which is a small step in the right direction to reflect the views of many of our offshore members that are filled with “FURIE”. It was great to see so many comrades join with Geoff Revell’s family and the RMT band this month to say farewell. The word ‘inspirational’ could have been patented for Geoff. “The time is always right, to do what is right!” Martin Luther King Jr In Solidarity, Sean Hoyle REMEMBERING TEBAY confidentiality and anonymity of the Samaritans service. The campaign will be rolled out across the rail network on posters and digital formats this month and it is anticipated that the campaign will be live for two years. Rail suicide prevention and support programme In January 2010, Network Rail formed a partnership with Samaritans, the leading suicide reduction charity, to decrease the number of suicides on the railways and to improve the support available for people affected by them. The partnership has since developed into a rail industry- wide programme, funded by Network Rail on behalf of the rail industry and supported by UK train operating companies and the British Transport Police. The poster communications campaigns are an important part of reaching out to those in need to encourage them to seek help, before difficult feelings spiral out of control. As part of the partnership Samaritans also deliver two award-winning training courses; the Managing Suicidal Contacts course, and the Trauma Support Training course. For information on these courses please email railcompanies@ samaritans.org, or visit www.samaritans.org/ railindustry. The rail industry’s Suicide Prevention Programme has also developed a video-based learning tool featuring inspiring accounts from rail employees across the industry who have made a potentially life-saving intervention or been involved in a fatality. This tool is available via www.nspsglearningtool.co.uk. SAMARITANS Talk to us about whatever is troubling you. Call us free any time, from any phone on 116 123, Or visit samaritans.org