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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: june 2018 :: RMTnews 22 Disabled RMT members from around the country met recently to discuss workplace issues and agree strategies for challenging discrimination. This was the second annual RMT disabled members’ conference which brought together twenty delegates, twice as many as last year. Branches submitted five motions and conference thoroughly debated and carried them all. This included a detailed plan for union action on mental health, training courses to be held in accessible venues; fighting funding cuts for disabled children, criticising ‘pity campaigning’ by charities and asking the union to ensure that reps stick to union policy when representing members accused of discrimination. Delegates also took part in a series of workshops, looking at how RMT can become more accessible; mental health; the social model of disability; mental health; and representing disabled members. Conference elected Janine Booth as chair of RMT’s disabled members’ advisory committee and Becca Masters as vice-chair and voted to hold next year’s conference in Plymouth. Paula Peters of Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) told delegates that after eight years of brutal Tory austerity, including £28.4bn in social care spending cuts and horrendous benefit cuts, disabled people found ourselves in a battle for the right to exist. In 2016, after four years of DPAC campaigning, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities committee ruled that the UK was guilty of grave and systematic human rights violations towards disabled people. In 2017 DPAC and others presented further evidence and the UN committee stated that the impact of the cuts were a human catastrophe on disabled people’s lives. “Due to horrendous benefits assessments, 590 people have taken their own lives,” she said. In April, DPAC held a day of action against Universal Credit, with street actions across the UK. Activists occupied the lobby area of Parliament, turning it into a ‘crime scene’ because Universal Credit is a crime against claimants. “Disabled people will be plunged further into poverty with the abolition of severe disability allowance, many DISABLED MEMBERS BUILD SOLIDARITY Disabled members’ conference hear’s powerful message of solidarity from Disabled People Against Cuts (DPAC) DPAC supporting RMT action in defence of the guard