PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january/february 2024 :: RMTnews 23 We start 2024 as we mean to go on. In January, RMT Train Drivers employed by Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Trains, Cross Country, Great Western Trains and TransPennine Express voted for action in pursuit of our demand for a ‘no-strings’ pay offer in our unresolved national rail dispute that began in 2022. RMT Drivers will strike and undertake an overtime ban alongside drivers in ASLEF. Train bosses did a screeching U-turn after initially threatening to use the new anti-union laws against ASLEF members striking at East Coast operator LNER. We must conclude that either Tory anti-strike laws are impractical, and unworkable, or the penny has begun to drop – the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act is a blatant political wedge tactic for a Tory general election campaign. While trade unionists welcomed the news that LNER, run by the Department for Transport’s ‘Operator of Last Resort’, backed off from its threat to use new Tory anti- worker Minimum Service Levels legislation against a trade union, this will not be the last we hear of this anti-democratic law. While serving Work Notices is not mandatory on employers, there is no doubt government ministers apply heavy pressure on rail employers to ‘throw the book’ at strikers. Robert Buckland MP, Tory chair of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee greeted January’s general strike by teachers, civil servants, bus, and train drivers in Belfast, by calling for minimum service level strike bans to extend to Northern Ireland. How did it go the last time a British government removed civil rights from people in Northern Ireland? British Tories, a bit like a former French royal family, learn nothing and forget nothing. Their latest anti-union law gives employers the power to issue ‘Work Notices’ to trade unions and individual members of staff, advising workers to work normally during lawful strike action they have democratically voted for, or be at risk of disciplinary sanction without the right to claim unfair dismissal at an Employment Tribunal. Any state that imposes such a legal prohibition on workers taking strike action is an authoritarian state. The right to withdraw your labour is a fundamental human right. This conscription law strips fundamental rights from workers and trade unionists in Britain. Not for the first time in our history we must organise to defeat anti-union, anti-worker laws. Members of RMT’s forerunner union, the National Union of Seamen (NUS) were routinely sacked and imprisoned under the draconian 1894 Merchant Shipping Act for “desertion” or “disobeying a lawful command” for striking on board merchant vessels. In 1960, when seafarers on the passenger liner Corinthia walked out in Liverpool to protest the dismissal of a ship’s steward, strikers were arrested and imprisoned. Their comrades picketed Walton prison and organised an internal union pressure group, the National Seaman’s Reform Movement to fight for their trade union rights. This month RMT members in Royal Fleet Auxiliary began a strike ballot over their paltry 4.5 percent pay offer. RFA crews rotate around a fleet that increasingly covers the shortfall in Royal Navy vessels and personnel. As former General Secretary, Bob Crow used to say, “RMT members have the same reasons as everyone else to support peace and oppose war. But additionally, our members are deployed as civilian workers into theatres of war.” We owe it to them to end British government support for war. A ceasefire in Gaza is the only way secure merchant shipping in the Red Sea. If Sunak’s reactionary, authoritarian government cared about lives of civilian seafarers, Palestinians, or Israelis it would stop supplying arms to Israel and support a ceasefire in Gaza immediately. Alex Gordon President’s Column SHAKE YOUR CHAINS TO EARTH placed considerable extra demands on the RNLI, particularly in south and east England where the threat of invasion and enemy activity was ever-present, rescuing downed aircrew a frequent occurrence, and the constant danger of mines. During the war, 6,376 lives were saved. Nineteen RNLI lifeboats also sailed to Dunkirk in 1940 to assist with the evacuation. Lifeboats from Ramsgate and Margate went directly to France, Ramsgate's crew collecting 2,800 troops. Both coxswains, Edward Parker from Margate and Howard Primrose Knight from Ramsgate, were awarded the Distinguished Service Medal for their ‘gallantry and determination”. WOMEN As part of the anniversary the role of women in the RNLI is being celebrated including an exhibition of photographs at the National Maritime Museum, London opening on March 2, 2024. It will celebrate the vital role that women have played in saving lives at sea, highlighting the work and success of women in a variety of roles throughout the RNLI’s 200-year history. Alongside the portraits, the exhibition will include recorded oral histories from some who share their experiences of life with the RNLI. Six histories have been collected during the creation of the exhibition which will also be available via the Royal Museums Greenwich website. The exhibition explores how women have played a crucial role in ensuring the RNLI remains functional through fundraising efforts. The section includes the thoughts of Janet Kelly MBE who recounts the challenges of establishing a new lifeboat station on the Thames in Central London. Tower RNLI station was opened in 2002 in response to the 1989 Marchioness riverboat disaster. Janet was key to promoting the RNLI’s presence on the Thames and even helped negotiate the purchase of the station’s pier location for just £1. Women have always been at the heart of the RNLI, although women weren’t part of the crew until the 1960s, they played a vital role in a myriad of ways such as fundraising and launching lifeboats during emergency callouts. To find out how you can help the work of the RNLI go to https://rnli.org