TUC WOMEN MEET Full RMT women delegation takes part in WTUC conference

Last year the TUC women’s conference was an on-line event, so it was great to be back in London for this conference which took place over three days, starting on International Women’s Day, March 8.

RMT had submitted two motions for the conference. First to be considered was the motion ‘women in railways’ moved by Ann Joss. This motion raised concerns about the government backed companies closing ticket offices and extending Driver Only Operation (DOO) across the rail network. Adding concerns that de-staffing our stations and trains would make public transport less safe, secure and accessible for women and girls. Ann reminded the conference the cuts were about protecting profits at the expense of workers and passengers.

Ann stressed that the attacks on public transport jobs and services were happening amidst a cost-ofliving crisis and noted that research had shown women are disproportionately affected by this crisis. The motion called on the trade union movement to continue coordinated campaigning and activity to defend jobs, pay and conditions.

RMT’s motion was seconded by ASLEF who added that they wanted properly staffed trains as in an emergency the driver will in most cases need support from the on-train crew. ASLEF fully supported the motion and stated that the railways can be lonely places for vulnerable passengers and staff needed to be visible to stop anti-social behaviour and to protect women and girls.

RMT’s second motion was on ‘male Bias in the maritime industry’, moved by Jennifer Aggrey-Fynn. This motion raised the issue of the prevalence of male orientated language in maritime legislation. As international conventions and domestic legislation still refer to ‘Seaman’, your official document is a ‘Seaman’s book’, with job titles such as ‘Motorman’ maintaining a division of gendered roles, no wonder women were fundamentally discouraged from seafarer jobs.

Highlighting the fact that only 1.3 per cent of the world’s 1.89 million seafarers are women and that the number of women in receipt of taxpayer funded seafarer training in the UK fell by 14 per cent between 2021/22, the motion concluded by calling on the TUC to support a campaign for gender neutral language in maritime relations, conventions and practices which could be introduced with sectoral collective bargaining in the shipping industry. Nautilus seconded the motion.

Having submitted an accepted amendment to a motion on the menopause, delegates Alisha Ansell and Ebony Kingston gave moving contributions to the debate. Both motions were passed overwhelmingly and Sophie Flood, Derby Rail and Engineering Branch was the RMT nominee to the TUC Women’s Committee 2023/2024 and she was successfully elected. It was an excellent and invigorating conference.