BLACK AND ETHNIC CONFERENCE MEETS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2022 :: RMTnews 18 Black and ethnic minority RMT members pledged to fight for equality at work following some high-profile industrial disputes on the transport sector. Meeting in Liverpool, guest speakers included general secretary Mick Lynch and local Labour MP Kim Johnson, the first black MP ever elected in the area. Delegates even joined a local demonstration against the outrageous sacking of 800 P&O workers last month. Addressing the packed conference, Mr Lynch said that Covid had exposed the inequalities in society in relation to class and racial background. “The poor have done worse during this period and the rich have enriched themselves even further. “Dodgy friends of the government got all these dodgy contracts and millions of pounds of money while our NHS was being underfunded. “We saw that many black and ethnic minority workers more vulnerable and more exposed to the virus and the pandemic - many of whom paid the price more than other people in our society. “It is the workers that make all of the wealth in society and the characteristic of the rich is they can consume more rapid rate than we can get access to. “The richer you are, the more privileged you are, the more likely you are to do well and survive Covid and be unaffected,” he said. Mr Lynch went on to emphasise the importance of RMT as an industrial and combative trade union, organising in all sectors and grades in the transport industry. Referring to organising outside traditional areas, such as contracted-out cleaners on the railway: “We’ve got to reach into every corner of every organisation we deal with. “The danger if we don’t do this properly, we become a club of people on PAYE terms that happens to be working for…one of the traditional railway companies and we don’t reach the superexploited and vulnerable. “We have people on traditional contracts and those on zero hours or contracted out to a private company. “And we must reach across that divide. Part of the strategy we are putting forward is how we can do that together. “The outsourcers the third- party providers the agencies target or use black and ethnic minority people more than white counterparts. “You don’t have to be a social scientist to realise that. “The industrial organisation strategy for me is part of our diversity and is part of our struggle for equality because if we organise everyone in our sectors, and bring them into union organisation, we will become a more diverse.” The general secretary admitted that RMT had further to travel on the road to being truly representative but pointed out that progress had been made with the first black woman elected to the NEC. “We must have unity,” he added. “We have differences - of course we do - we have a democracy and different ideas. But on these issues, our differences are minuscule compared to what the bosses are going to throw at us.” Local Liverpool Labour MP Kim Johnson expressed her admiration of the city but insisted she did not shy away from it’s past as a slave trade capital. “The wealth and architecture of the slave trade is still very visible in our streets today. “And as a black working- class woman growing up in the 1970s, I was exposed to lots of politics, challenging sexual and racial injustice. Thatcher at the time, had abandoned my city with a policy of managed decline, sending unemployment skyrocketing to double the national average”. Ms Johnson went on to describe extremely difficult sometimes violent racial tensions in the city during that period, recalling no go areas and black youths fighting with “skin heads” on the streets. Explaining her mixed heritage to conference, she said: “My mum was from the white working-class community of north Liverpool, and I faced racial abuse as the only black pupil at my school. “There were colour bars on nights out, usually preventing black men from attending, these facilities”. She went on to slam the Thatcher government’s use of “paramilitary tactics” to quell the 1981 riots across England, including in Toxteth in inner- city Liverpool. The MP added: “The so- called race riots were a response to the collapse of economic opportunities.” Delegates also passed several motions at the conference including to campaign against the deportations resulting from racist immigration legislation which led to the Windrush scandal. BLACK AND ETHNIC CONFERENCE MEETS RMT’s black and ethnic minority members’ annual conference delegate march with P&O workers