CALLING YOUNG MEMBERS!

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: january/february 2025 :: RMTnews 13 It’s been a busy year for RMT young members, and new year brings our annual conference, generously hosted by East Kent branch, which will be taking place at Canterbury Cathedral on Friday February 21 to Saturday February 22, 2025. We have also seen further progress in our recruitment campaigns on health and safety reps and organising apprentices. Through these campaigns the union has almost doubled the number of young health and safety reps and brought record numbers of apprentices into the union. The committee has also run well attended education courses alongside the union's annual general meeting in Hull and at the Marx Memorial Library in London. Each conference brings together educational sessions and speakers, business like motions and socials in the evenings. In past years, sessions have included training on organising your workplace, guests like Jeremy Corbyn and workshops on how Great British Railways might work. This year it’ll be more of the same with engaging speakers and organising workshops on winning at work and building effective communications strategies. If you are aged 30 or under, don’t miss out. Ask your branch or regional council to submit your application to the National Education Centre, Doncaster, or via email to m.cudjoe@rmt.org.uk by Monday February 10, 2025. COURSE: RMT young members at an education course with Marx Memorial Library director Merian Jump and MML cultural attaché Simon Renton (far right) union was ready to work with Jersey to ensure that seafarers benefit from secure, fairly paid jobs and that ferry links meet the needs of passengers and freight users alike. “While Condor, now majority-owned by Brittany Ferries, has been awarded the Guernsey ferry contract, the union continues its campaign to ensure employment standards improve across all Channel Islands routes. “Decent pay, job security, and opportunities for apprenticeships must be at the heart of all ferry operations,” he said. NO MORE P&O’S RMT has also welcomed the Labour government’s commitment to introduce new laws in the Employment Rights Bill to stop another P&O Ferries scandal taking place and ensuring basic pay protections for seafarers. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that it was an important step in strengthening seafarers’ employment rights and conditions across the ferry sector and to extend collectively bargained terms and conditions for maritime workers. “It was one of the most shameful episodes in UK industrial relations that P&O Ferries escaped prosecution for breaking employment law and replacing hundreds of RMT seafarers with agency workers on sub minimum wage contracts bordering on modern slavery. "Taking action to end fire and replacement and closing the scandalous loopholes that allow rogue employers like P&O Ferries and their wealthy owners in Dubai to act with impunity, is long overdue. "It is shameful that the previous government refused to act in the interests of UK seafarers,” he said. CALLING YOUNG MEMBERS! RMT young members advisory committee chair Sarah Cundy previews conference taking place in February CONFERENCE: Young members meeting in Wigan last year