HULL SOS 2020 SHIPPING PROTEST

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october 2017 :: RMTnews 12 RMT promoted the aims and objectives of the union’s national SOS 2020 campaign in Hull last month with a protest outside Hull’s Maritime Museum. RMT is pointing out that as an island nation and net importer, economic, social and security interests depend upon seafarers and a resilient maritime skills base. • 95 per cent of all imported and exported goods in the UK are transported by ship • Over 496 million tonnes of maritime freight handled from ships at UK ports • Over 22 million passengers moved on short sea, continental and international cruise ferries • The shipping industry directly contributes over £3 billion to UK GDP • The Royal Fleet Auxiliary is the biggest employer of UK merchant seafarers The exclusion of seafarers’ from full employment or equality rights, low levels of training and the rise of Flags of Convenience registers, including those in the Red Ensign Group (e.g. the Isle of Man and Bermuda) have driven a decline in UK Ratings and Officers from 58,000 in the 1980s to 23,380 in 2015. Non-UK Ratings continue to be recruited on rates of pay below the legal UK minimum. This unfair competition blocks UK seafarers’ access to work, damages the maritime skills base and drives down employment standards, training and pay across the industry. Moreover employers routinely avoid paying seafarers their full entitlement even to these low wages – last year an estimated £31.5 million of earnings were not paid to seafarers working from UK ports. Since 2011, UK Ratings have fallen by 25 per cent and the total number of UK seafarers decreased by over 13 per cent. The ageing nature of our seafarers means that if training and employment do not increase before then, 2020 will see the retirement of thousands of UK Seafarers, exposing this country to negative economic, social and security effects of a maritime skills deficit. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said the union was determined that the future of our maritime industry was not ignored and ports like Hull have a huge amount at stake economically and industrially if we allow central government to continue to allow the decimation of UK shipping. “As part of our SOS2020 campaign RMT is demanding jobs, training and the end of the race to the bottom on pay and working conditions. Our objective is simple – a guaranteed future for the UK shipping industry based on the development of a skilled and expanded domestic workforce that will secure the economy of areas like Hull well into the future. RMT national secretary Steve Todd added that for too long the maritime sector had been ravaged by social dumping and the flouting of pay and employment regulations at the expense of UK ratings jobs. “That scandal has to end and RMT will be challenging the government to match their rhetoric about a post-Brexit future for UK shipping with concrete action on jobs, training and working conditions,” he said HULL SOS 2020 SHIPPING PROTEST Union warns unfair competition damages the maritime skills base and drives down employment standards, training and pay