RMT EQUALITY CONFERENCES 2024

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2023 :: RMTnews 22 RMT is fully committed to promoting equality and recognises that for the union to serve all its members, fair representation is essential throughout all structures. As part of this strategy, advisory committees were established to encourage and facilitate participation of our women, black and ethnic minority (B&EM), LGBT+, disabled and young members. This structure reflects the equality groups established by the TUC. RMT advisory committees meet three times a year and each holds an annual conference. Any members wishing to attend conference or to join the advisory committee must be nominated by your branch. The committees and conferences are there to advise the union on matters relevant to them. Whilst they cannot make policy, that is for the Annual General Meeting or National Executive Committee, these bodies and the leadership are eager to listen and act on what these groups recommend. Regional advisory committees can also be established to encourage local participation. The advisory committees and their conferences rely on branches and regions submitting motions for them to discuss and vote on. If the national advisory committee votes in favour of the resolution, it will then be considered by the national executive committee and carried out as they instruct. Whilst this seems a very formal way of doing things, it does ensure that a democratic process is followed and promotes debate within the union. The International Transport Workers Federation (ITF) held a women transport workers’ conference recently in Saly, Senegal, which was attended by two RMT delegates. This included NEC member for the South East Region Millie Apedo-Amah and national women’s advisory committee chair Jessica Robinson. Around 200 women from over 40 countries from Australia to Norway, Mongolia to Burkina Faso and Canada to Malaysia represented the rail, road, maritime and aviation industries and every single one with a story to tell. Their testimonies formed the backbone of the conference, heard not only through speeches and translation headsets but through song, dance and street theatre. There can be few things more emotional than a choir of Senegalese women singing ‘Solidarity Forever’, their voices lifting through the humid African air to a room packed full of women all with their struggles. As ever the aim for ITF’s women remains to seek gender equality in all sectors. Conference was divided into four themes: building women transport workers’ economic power, ending violence against women transport workers, ensuring technological change is introduced in a way that promotes gender equality and building women’s participation and leadership in transport decision-making. All of these themes are relevant to RMT’s members just as they are to women the world over. The RMT delegation was particularly keen to discuss the impact of technological advances on women members, considering ‘modernisation’ and ‘technology’ are often cited as RMT equalities officer Jess Webb outlines the role of the union’s equalities conferences WOMEN’S CONFERENCE 1-2 March 2024 RNLI College, West Quay Road, Poole BH15 1HZ BLACK & ETHNIC MINORITY MEMBERS’ CONFERENCE 4-5 March 2024 Birmingham Conference & Events Centre, Hill Street, Birmingham B5 4EW DISABLED MEMBERS’ CONFERENCE 10-11 April 2024 Hilton Liverpool City Centre, 3 Thomas Steers Way, Liverpool L1 8LW LGBT+ MEMBERS’ CONFERENCE 17-18 May 2024 Mechanics Institute, 103 Princess Street, Manchester M1 6DD RMT sent a delegation to a women’s international trade union conference in Senegal ‘AS BIRDS ARE BORN TO FLY, WOMEN ARE BORN TO BE FREE’ RMT EQUALITY CONFERENCES 2024