PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

I would like to wish everybody a happy new year and may 2019 bring many victories and happiness to all RMT members. I want to say thank you to all who helped during my campaign to be your national president for the following three years. I will be the best I can be and serve all of you with openness and honesty and I will be inclusive of everyone and will always have an open door policy. I will help and encourage your national executive member and officers to deliver on your behalf. We have many fights on-going and I’m sure many more to come and I will assist in any way practical. I hope over the next three years we build unity and solidarity. It would be remiss of me not to thank Steve Shaw and Jamie Nickles for their part in the election process and wish them well for their next endeavours. I hope all their supporters now get behind doing the job in hand representing RMT members at every level to beat the bosses; we can and will always show unity in the face of adversity and defend our members. I would also like to thank Sean Hoyle for a president who over the last three years has been a members’ champion, showing determination and grace in equal measure, he will be a hard act to follow. A challenge I’m looking forward to is learning from our equality groups and rank and file members in offshore, maritime, road transport, buses, freight and train operating companies and Network Rail not forgetting the many fragmented agencies who now work alongside us to build this union into the only union for transport workers. This is especially needed when you see greedy bosses being allowed to push workers’ wages and conditions to some of the worst we have seen by a government of the elite and business, now’s the time to stand and fight, and campaign for a new government and changes to anti-trade union laws to protect jobs and workers to halt the race to the bottom pitching workers against workers. I’m also looking forward to supporting Jeremy Corbyn and John Mc Donald to secure a government that gives hope back to a country in ruin because of the austerity programme forced upon us by this corrupt Tory government who was relentless to push policies that only served the rich and bosses. The fight over the last two years over the second safety critical member on board our trains is one of greed from government and train operators alike. When sexual assaults and crime rises all it does is deter the public from using the public transport services provided and with significant cuts to buses, in most regions it isolates the most vulnerable and increase costs to taxpayers on a program that serves no one only those interested in profit before safety. In solidarity Michelle Rodgers President’s column THANK YOU RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january 2019 :: RMTnews 23 R MT general secretary Mick Cash and national secretary Darren Procter represented the union at the remembrance service at the Merchant Seamen’s War Memorial garden at Tower Hill, London on November 11. Both laid wreaths in memory of those seafarers that lost their lives in both world wars and other conflicts, over 35,000 men were lost in World War Two alone. REMEMBERING FALLEN SEAFARERS Mick Cash Darren Proctoer