PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2021 :: RMTnews 20 President’s column Well spring is upon us and it’s time to look forward. Ballot papers are out for the general secretary election so please use your democratic right to vote for the candidate you want to see take our union forward, it’s your choice use it. Just as the year began the attacks from this disgraceful Tory government and their management spivs continue. We have seen attacks on several of our activists for standing up in their workplace in defence of terms and conditions and sacked for putting the safety of others first. This is outrageous and despite the current climate and restrictions we must all support each and every member and activist that is in trouble in every way possible. SWR guards are being pushed in to a difficult position, after 74 days of amazing strength and solidarity they are faced with a choice that must be difficult but, in real terms, one that has moved the company from no guard on a train to a guaranteed guard on every train. After years of fighting from traincrew members and victories secured across various operators, the Tory government are finding new ways to turn the thumb screws. This is despite every poll of the travelling public showing they want to feel safe. The cutting of jobs should not even be an option as crime rises faster than inflation. The attacks on jobs has sadly already started and we have to prepare ourselves for a further onslaught as we hopefully move out of this pandemic. The mismanagement of the economy and wasting of billions by this government on a failing test and trace system for example means the workers will be expected to pay for their gross incompetence by way of pay awards at less than inflation, pay freezes, job losses and giving up hard earned terms and conditions. We are all better than just being grateful for having a job like the bosses and media will have us believe, we all have skills and we are worth a pay rise. This is normally a time of year when we have our organising conferences, but again sadly this pandemic has made that impossible. That said we do have the electronic platforms to use and I’d urge everyone to give it a go and attend conferences. When we gather together we are stronger, and our collective conversation and debates help lay out the direction we want to take to shape our union. Whilst it is difficult hopefully these will be the last ones held electronically and we can all as comrades look forward to meeting next year. We have also seen growth in our new campaign of inshore divers and I’m excited for the June statutory meeting, where we can look to include more maritime branches in to the campaign and see growth of an industry that will play a major part with offshore workers in helping grow our union. I am going to finish my column on a note of sadness and frustration. Whilst this union is still facing and has faced some difficult challenges the work to restore/repair that mechanism and relationships has always been ongoing, so it saddens me when a faction like the broad left continue to print and post about democratically elected National Executive Committee members in a derogatory way. All this is doing is ripping the scab off the sore that was healing. It is poisoning RMT members minds by way of negative articles that are devoid of fact nor both sides of the story. Reporting over internal matters that have not been circulated nor even agreed in the minutes at the time of the article being written, whilst stating decisions will be appealed to the AGM, only puts our democracy at risk by potentially prejudicing debate. We get outraged at the right wing media propaganda and spin but is this really any different? This continual condemning and borderline bullying and harassment is destroying members faith in all our elected officials and completely turning members off so grow up, use the internal structures that are in place to air your grievances and stop washing your dirty linen in public. Solidarity, Michelle DON’T FORGET TO VOTE