PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

President’s column As we leave winter behind, RMT’s spring conference season has already begun. In advance of International Women’s Day on March 8, RMT’s National Women’s Conference met in the grand surroundings of the former Cooperative Wholesale Society offices at Newcastle’s Discovery Museum. Fifty-seven RMT women delegates from across Britain came together to hear reports from RMT assistant general secretary, John Leach, NEC representative, Millie Apedo- Amah and guest speaker, Laura Pidcock from the People’s Assembly. RMT women called for flexible working to become the default for workers across the transport industries. Workers should not have to plead with employers for flexible working, and ‘business needs’ should not be an excuse to fail to accommodate workers’ needs for flexible working to fulfil family and caring responsibilities. RMT Women’s Conference elected Jess Robinson of Darlington branch as chair of the women’s advisory committee for the coming year and accepted an invitation from Dorset Rail branch to host RMT Women’s Conference in Bournemouth in 2024. In past weeks RMT members have come together in record breaking numbers to debate issues of importance to our members at depots, stations, ships and ports across Britain. Last month, 170 delegates at RMT’s Health & Safety Advisory Conference in York gave the Chief Inspector of Railways, Ian Prosser a grilling that he will remember for a long time. When he admitted he hadn’t even seen Rail Delivery Group proposals for generic station staff roles, Adebusola Adebiyi of Reading branch, RMT Health & Safety representative for GWR Station staff at Slough told him bluntly, “Your answer was not acceptable. This is happening now. You need to be on top of this. I love my job. It’s a really important job. You need to know what is going on and the impact on passenger safety”. Fifty delegates attended RMT’s Young Members’ conference in Hastings last month to debate, learn and build friendships and solidarity. They set themselves an ambitious target of 100 delegates to their Young Members conference in Wigan in 2024. RMT’s many equalities and industrial organising conferences held each spring are evidence of a healthy union whose members of every conceivable background and working experience are building a culture of union democracy. This is in contrast to recent revelations from the TSSA union of gross misconduct by some officers and a complete lack of democratic accountability to their elected executive committee. There is no need to recount the details of the independent report by Baroness Helena Kennedy KC into sexual harassment within the TSSA. Her findings reflect not just on individual acts of harassment and bullying, but a culture that has been able to develop within a union with an absence of democratic accountability and a culture of arrogance and impunity among officers. I am pleased TSSA members - who work alongside RMT members – are now finding their voices and have called a Special Delegate Conference to debate their union’s future. That is a matter for them, but the reality is that their union may not survive. In response to TSSA’s merger talks with the GMB union, RMT’s executive committee instructed general secretary Mick Lynch to meet TSSA’s interim president and make clear RMT’s rules require that we “secure complete organisation of all workers employed by any board, company or authority in connection with rail, sea and other transport and ancillary undertakings”. Trade unions are primary defensive organisations for workers - never more so than today. RMT is a growing trade union with a vibrant democratic culture and a record of accountability to members. We will continue to build industrial democracy through our structures and our culture and we look forward to more and more workers joining with us in 2023. Alex Gordon THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRACY LOOKS LIKE Belgian transport workers' union, BTB (Belgische Transportbond) paid a visit to Unity House earlier this month. BTB is part of ABVV, Belgium's socialist trade union confederation, representing transport workers across the private sector industries in Belgium. The Belgian delegation was led by BTB President, Frank Moreels, who is also President of the European Transport Workers' Federation (ETF). BTB represents dockers in Ghent, Zeebrugge and Antwerp as well as seafarers on Belgian flagged vessels and inland waterway workers, road freight workers, taxi and bus drivers throughout Belgium. The BTM delegation met RMT President Alex Gordon, National Secretary, Darren Procter, Senior AGS Eddie Dempsey and Davie Douglas and Carlos Barros from RMT's national executive committee and had a wide-ranging discussion on the situation facing transport workers in Britain and Belgium. BELGIAN SOLIDARITY 25 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2023 :: RMTnews