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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: july/august 2020 :: RMTnews 15 T hames waterways union RMT has demanded that London Mayor Sadiq Khan exempt staff working at Tower RNLI station from the congestion and ULEZ charges warning that a failure to recognise the vital contribution of this group of staff at the UK's busiest lifeboat station was robbing them of hundreds of pounds a month. RMT has written to both the Mayor and TFL boss Mike Brown requesting that the RNLI staff be exempt from the charges. The request has been turned down flat and the union is now ratcheting up the pressure as river traffic is expected to escalate over the coming weeks as the lockdown is eased. The RNLI staff have been advised not to use public transport and have found themselves caught in a charging trap which is set to deepen when the congestion charge timings are extended from the June 22. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was nothing short of a scandal that the RMT members at the Tower lifeboat station, the busiest in the country, are being hammered by the escalation and extension of congestion charging as they support our volunteer crews in their lifesaving work. “We are demanding that the Mayor take urgent action to right this wrong. “It is expected that river traffic will escalate profoundly over the coming weeks as the lockdown is eased and the contribution of the Thames RNLI staff to ensuring safety on the river must be recognised. “Our members are calling for nothing more than fairness and justice and Sadiq Khan must face up to this scandal on his watch and do the right thing,” he said. R MT members joined an event organised by Worcester Trade Union Council last month on the anniversary of the Grenfell fire in which 72 people died. Last year WTUC held a silent walk through Worcester but due to Covid 19 it decided to mark the anniversary in a different way. Banners were placed on the steps of the Hive in Worcester together with lists of the names of the people that died. REMEMBER GRENFELL LIFT CONGESTION CHARGE FOR LONDON RNLI STAFF SOLIDARITY: Members of the RNLI on the River Thames near St Thomas' Hospital in Westminster, London, saluting NHS workers fighting the coronavirus pandemic.