IRISH SEA PROTESTS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2019 :: RMTnews 14 RMT held two demonstrations in Liverpool last month highlighting the scandal of low pay, recruitment of UK and Irish ratings and the failure to redeploy members. The first protest was at P&O after the company sold the Bahamas registered ro-ro passenger ferry European Endeavour to Finnish ferry company Eckerö Line. The Endeavour worked between Liverpool and Dublin, with UK crew employed but these jobs are now at risk. Dubai-owned P&O Ferries – which made pre-tax profits of £40.6 million last year with directors on as much as £692,000 – is refusing to re- deploy RMT members on the Irish Sea fleet. This refusal to maintain seafarers on collectively bargained terms and conditions in the Irish Sea is another demonstration of P&O’s intention to maximise profits from low-paid agency workers at the expense of directly contracted UK seafarers. The next protest was held at Seatruck, which operate 76 freight sailings a week on three Irish Sea routes, Liverpool- Dublin, Heysham-Warrenpoint and Heysham-Dublin. Seatruck, which recorded post-tax profits of £9.4 million in 2017 and has paid out £23.5 million in dividends in the last three years to shareholders, do not recognise UK or Irish trade unions. Their vessels, registered in Cyprus or the Isle of Man, are crewed with EU seafarers on rates of pay below the National Minimum Wage, as low as £3.78 an hour for ratings. By contrast, Seatruck’s highest paid director received a 17 per cent pay rise in 2017 to £304,780. Seatruck’s safety culture is also shameful, with the investigation into the tragic death of an Assistant Bosun on Seatruck Pace in December 2018 revealing that the chief Safety Officer on the vessel had received no training in how to carry out that role. The protests were organised under the banner of RMT’s SOS 2020 campaign which is committed to ending the scandal of seafarer exploitation and increasing jobs for ratings on RMT terms and conditions by securing the following reforms: • Equal rights in employment, equality and immigration law for UK seafarers • ‘Cabotage’ protections for UK crew and ships based on the USA’s Jones Act • Statutory targets to train thousands of UK Ratings • Improved safety standards in UK shipping • Protect the Royal Fleet Auxiliary’s merchant seafarers from privatisation RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was a scandal that after announcing the sale by P&O of the European Endeavour members were not offered redeployment on one of the company’s other Irish Sea vessels when suitable positions exist. “Instead, P&O are filling ratings positions on the Irish Sea with agency crew, citing that their ‘business model’ needs to be maintained. “It is shameful that shipping companies like P&O choose a business model that replaces long-standing seafarers with ‘low-cost’ workers. “With this attitude from a major shipping company it is no surprise that of 101,000 ratings and officers that make our shipping industry tick, under 20 per cent of these jobs are held by British seafarers, most of whom will retire in the next decade,” he said. IRISH SEA PROTESTS SOS: RMT national secretary explains the union's campaign to Merseyside police