PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: june 2022 :: RMTnews R MT has a dedicated health and safety department based in Unity House and advice is also available from Head Office via RMT Health and Safety officers, Sarah Friday s.friday@rmt.org.uk and Jonathan Havard j.havard@rmt.org.uk Jonathan and Sarah both have backgrounds in different sectors in which RMT organise. Jonathan worked for Nautilus for many years and took up many maritime health and safety issues during that time including cases of asbestos, diesel fume emission, lifeboat safety, suicide prevention, stranded cadets, and enclosed spaces incidents. Sarah was employed as a train guard and then train driver and was Waterloo branch chair and RMT drivers safety rep until dismissed in 2000 by South West Trains for her health and safety activities. The work of the department involved actioning union decisions relating to health and safety and attending RSSB and Network Rail meetings. Much of their time has been spent on issues relating to the pandemic, as well as revamping the health and safety section of the web site and documents so that these are a more useful resource for RMT safety reps. They also organise the annual RMT national Health and Safety advisory conference for safety reps along with the advisory committee currently chaired by Ann Joss. The committee consists of reps elected from each electoral region, including the maritime grades. President’s column On May 24 over 40,000 RMT members at 15 rail companies and Network Rail voted for action to end the Tory pay freeze. Our nine to one vote for strike action vindicates RMT’s strategy for a coordinated industrial challenge to railway employers’ plan to shut ticket offices, slash on-train catering, introduce Driver-Controlled train operation (DCO) and outsource track, signalling and electrical maintenance to sub-contractors. In future years, when accessible, green public transport to meet UK net-zero carbon commitments becomes more important for media and politicians than propping up Boris Johnson, remember when Tory ministers told rail bosses ‘Cut back’, RMT members replied, ‘Fight back’. Our ballot result was a bolt from the blue for most British media, who prefer pictures of royal corgis and publishing character assassinations of trade unionists, to reporting the reality of Britain’s low-pay crisis. Yet, the impressive determination and unity shown in our ballot results was achieved on the shoulders of many other workers fighting poverty pay and outsourcing. RMT Cleaners at Churchills Cleaning Services on Eurostar, Thameslink, Southern and Southeastern trains, and Cleaners working for Atalian-Servest on Avanti West Coast trains have been striking for £15/hour, contractual sick pay and a key worker travel scheme. RMT guards at TransPennine Express have taken strike action over pay most weekends this year. London Underground members also delivered a stunning slap down in March and June to Transport for London bosses planning to raid their pension scheme and slash numbers of station staff. Now ripples from all these struggles are turning into national disputes – hopefully a portent of awakening class consciousness to derail government plans to make working people pay for the Cost-of-Living crisis. The TUC records over 300 industrial disputes around ‘fire and rehire’ and low pay this year. If you want an idea of the scale of strikes across Britain today, check out the new social media app StrikeMap Unite also won an inflation-busting 14 per cent pay rise after an epic strike at Chep pallet makers in Trafford Park, Manchester. Refuse collectors have been striking over pay since January in Coventry. GMB is leading refuse worker strikes in North Somerset, East Sussex, Barrow, Manchester and Cardiff. Unison members at Dundee and eight other universities have been striking over pay and pensions. Teachers at the Girls Day School Trust went on strike in April and May to keep access to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. GMB members, who make Fox’s glacier mints in York took strike action in April and 8,000 distribution workers at ASDA are balloting for strike action against a threat to cut their sick pay. Tugboat crews employed by Svitzer Marine at Teesport won a pay rise strikes in April. Unite members at Hackney Council went on strike in April against a 1.75 per cent pay award, a “real terms pay cut”. GMB is balloting parking wardens in Wiltshire over a 10 per cent pay cut. Public and Commercial Service union members at the British Council are taking action in a dispute over redundancies, restructuring and outsourcing. Members of the National Union of Journalists at BBC North West voted for industrial action to defend jobs, as the broadcaster plans huge cuts. The Communication Workers’ Union won a massive 97.3 per cent mandate for strike action against the Royal Mail’s two per cent pay offer. Unite has now balloted 1,000 managers at Royal Mail in response to job cuts. The lesson of all these workers voting for strike action, in the immortal words of Scottish miners’ leader Mick McGahey is that ‘we are a movement, not a monument’. Let’s show our power and solidarity by marching together on Saturday June 18 at the TUC national demonstration in London. See you there! Alex Gordon, RMT President ‘WE ARE A MOVEMENT, NOT A MONUMENT’ HOW TO GET HELP AS A HEALTH AND SAFETY REP