PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column As Labour’s Shadow Shipping Minister, I was proud to support RMT’s SOS 2020 campaign at Labour Party conference and the recent demonstration outside Hull Maritime Museum. We support this vital campaign to revitalise UK seafaring and to make this a better regulated and safer industry to work in. The campaign targets the right areas for action to reverse job losses and the lack of training for UK Ratings in our shipping industry. The fact that Shipping Minister John Hayes has at least announced a target to double the number of maritime apprenticeships in training shows that the SOS 2020 campaign is cutting through the political noise. However, as is always the case with Tory governments, a look behind the headline reveals uglier truths. As John Hayes has mentioned it, let’s look at training. There are over 300 rating apprentices either in or waiting to start a rating apprenticeship but over 70 per cent of these new starters are in the public sector through Royal Fleet Auxiliary and CalMac apprentices. Once again, the public sector pursues the national interest whilst the private ferry, cargo and offshore supply operators largely ignore UK seafarers and the national need, choosing to profit from an over-supply of cheaper foreign crews, usually paid below the National Minimum Wage, a level of exploitation and discrimination that would be unthinkable and completely illegal on land. It is two years since the government’s Maritime Growth Strategy was published. Its emphasis on skills and training was welcome but has not resulted in the major increase in jobs and training that we need to see. Hardly any employers have used the link to Ratings training in the Tonnage Tax, public funding for seafarer training remains frozen and major employers like Stena Line are not participating in Rating Apprenticeships. It is not surprising but deeply frustrating, therefore, that we are still heading towards a crippling maritime skills deficit, the result of declining numbers of UK ratings and officers which has gone uncorrected since the 1990s. For too long the international shipping industry has called the shots over maritime policy for a sector which moves over 95 per cent of the UK’s traded goods and over 60 million passengers every year. Political parties must realise that such a vital sector for our economy and jobs is too important to be left to the self-interest of corporate shipping. That must change and with the union and others I am working to draw up a shipping and ports policy that works for UK seafarers and taxpayers. Most countries, including major economies like the USA and Japan, use cabotage legislation to protect their merchant naval skills base and supply chain from unfettered competition. I want to look at how similar legislation could be applied to the UK. To date the UK has chosen not to exercise that option, largely from a fear of being accused as ‘protectionist’ which has resulted in a meek surrender of our national interest and those of seafarer communities like my own in Hull and the Humber region. This skewed policy will end under Labour. We will protect UK ratings and officers, as well as shipbuilders and supply chain companies from the inevitable consequences of a race to the bottom. That will allow us to take advantage of growth areas in the maritime sector, from offshore energy to the cruise sector – the UK needs to be world leaders in the skills those industries need but we won’t be if this government continues to exempt and excuse shipowners from their responsibility to the UK maritime skills base. And let’s not forget that this is not an industry in crisis. It is profitable and the government’s own figures show that demand for ratings in the UK shipping industry is set to increase over the next decade. It is seafarer skills that are in crisis and that could harm our economic future, post-Brexit. It really is that serious and I welcome that RMT is making these fundamentally important arguments to politicians. A government-commissioned report estimates 87,000 ratings jobs in the UK shipping industry, but UK ratings only hold barely 10 per cent of that number. So let’s be absolutely clear that we have a massive opportunity to revive the shipping sector, as part of a new industrial strategy that promotes UK jobs and growth. Political will is needed to take on the vested interests entrenched in the shipping industry and, in tandem with the SOS 2020 campaign, Labour has that political will under Jeremy Corbyn. Karl Turner Labour MP Hull East Shadow Shipping Minister SOS 2020, GAME ON RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2017 :: RMTnews 9 public safety. RMT believes that Uber has not had a valid operational basis for holding their license under the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 since the original grant of their licence and continue to operate illegally. The union considers that while TfL has made some headway in addressing the serious public safety concerns associated with Uber, it is still awaiting a response from TfL regarding the illegality of Uber’s practices in relation to their operational model and the issue of their drivers illegally “plying for hire”. The union has also questioned allowing Uber to continue operating while it appeals TfL’s decision, when the basis of TfL’s decision not to renew the license was made on the grounds that Uber were not fit and proper to hold the license and that there are serious concerns for public safety. Concern for public safety is a key reason not to permit operation during appeal under 26(2) of the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998 and this appears to have been previously overlooked in relation to Uber. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn told the media at party conference that TfL was doing the “right thing” by refusing to renew the taxi firm's permission to operate in the capital. “TfL are there to protect all of us and I think they are doing the right thing and obviously people need to be able to travel, obviously they want to be able to access cabs. “Those cabs must be safe, must be regulated and must be available for all,” he said. Labour’s shadow chancellor John McDonnell said that the company was “a disgrace. “You have to abide by the law and if the company was outside the law, what could Transport for London do? “Four months ago they were told to get their act together and they didn’t,” he said.