FIGHTING FOR CATERERS AND CLEANERS

The idea for a cleaners’ and caterers’ forum arose from some intense discussions at meetings of the London and Anglia regional council, where it was shown that despite the best efforts of activists, many members in these grades were dropping out of membership after a year or two due to what they perceived to be a distinct lack of any concrete achievement. These are the very people in most need of an effective trade union. We took a long and serious look at the message in our recruitment drives and the feedback suggested that these vulnerable members were expecting some kind of AA service, where somebody turns up and fixes the problems. This is obviously oversimplifying things but it contains a hard kernel of truth. In his opening remarks at the forum, assistant general secretary Mick Lynch drove home this very point when, in adapting the words of Karl Marx, he stated that the emancipation of the sub- contracted workers must be the act of the workers themselves, using the structures and resources of the whole union. This forum was not an exercise in bypassing those structures but encouraging members to make the best use of them. The best part of the day was listening to what the workers themselves had to say and what were their key issues. They then spent time working on possible solutions with assistance and guidance from the more experienced activists as to which avenues they could follow such as via the branch, regional council and the various conferences. Members from Leadec, Rail Gourmet, Churchills and Interserve took part as well as others from Virgin West Coast and Greater Anglia, and the end result was an informal committee of activists, whose aim is to work together on common issues and work through the official union structures. All agreed that this is the first of what hopefully will be many future forums, and members from all over London and the South East are invited to become involved. These members have identified the key issues and they are working towards finding their own issues. That’s how trade unionism should be. Thanks go to all who attended, with special praise to Kathy Mazur, Eddie Dempsey, Dave Marshall, Tony Donaghey, Steve Smart and Mick Lynch for their invaluable contributions on the day, and to Steve Silver for designing and producing the campaign material. FIGHTING FOR CATERERS AND CLEANERS London and Anglia regional council president Ray Knight reports on a forum which met last month Mick Lynch quoting Karl Marx RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2019 :: RMTnews 12