RMT YOUTH DEMAND REAL TRAINING AND INSOURCING

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march/april 2025 :: RMTnews 14 A packed young members conference meeting in Canterbury launched the union's Apprentice Charter aimed at improving wages, working conditions, and training standards for transport apprentices across the country. RMT apprentice campaigner Rhys Harmer of LU Fleet branch introduced the charter as a tool to improve training for young people. “This Charter lays out bold demands to ensure apprenticeships are no longer treated as low-paid, insecure, and substandard roles, but as a respected and vital investment in the future of the transport industry. “Apprenticeships should be a gateway to highly skilled, secure jobs, but instead, too many young workers are trapped in low pay, poor training, and dead-end contracts. "Our Apprentice Charter sets out a clear plan to fix this broken system, with better pay, guaranteed jobs, and high-quality, in-house training. "The government and employers must invest in the next generation of transport workers to help grow the economy and provide secure skilled employment for the long term,” he said. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey welcomed the charter and outlined the need for industrial trade unionism in the transport sector to encourage and develop real training. “As an industrial union we organise all grades and all ages of transport worker on the basis of our motto Unity is Strength,” he said. He said that apprenticeships were in decline across the country and that had to be reversed in the transport sector. He pointed out that the incoming Great British Railways (GBR) project needed to reverse the fragmentation of the network and address poor training programmes and insource workers that have been outsourced with poor conditions. “We need to create a pathway for young people to progress in the rail industry,” he said. He said that the government was changing the law to allow local authorities to run bus services was an opportunity to defend and extend workers rights and improve training and pay. Apprentice James Braithwaite, LU Fleet called on the union to campaign for the Labour government to introduce a rail industry training scheme aimed at enrolling young workers in vocational training including continuing further education and preparing them for a railway career. “This scheme should incorporate the best elements of Network Rail’s award- winning apprenticeship scheme but also cover operational and clerical roles so that young workers experience the whole range of opportunities in the rail industry. “The union must insist that trade unionism is embedded in vocational education with candidates afforded time within courses to help them understand the role trade unions play,” he said. INSOURCE NOW Delegates welcomed the government bringing train operating companies (TOCs) under public control as an RMT YOUTH DEMAND REAL TRAINING AND INSOURCING Conference launches Apprentice Charter and demands improved training programmes