TAKING PRIDE

RMT members join events celebrating pride in diversity

RMT members took part in a number of LGBT+ pride and trade union events in the last couple of months. There were large contingents of RMT members at the annual London Pride in July and in Birmingham.

The union also sent delegates to the TUC LGBT conference and RMT member Colin Masters addressed delegates.

Meryn Finlay, Oban Shipping and Martin Duncan, Perth No.1 also formed the RMT delegation at the Scottish

TUC LBGT conference in Clydebank. The theme of the event was ‘Scotland’s LGBT+ Workers Demanding Better: Protecting our rights, fighting for our future’.

Many resolutions were debated including tackling the global rise of LGBT+ hate, trans and non-binary inclusion, reform of gender identity clinics, LGBT+ refugees, unequal health outcomes; fit funding for public services and improving LGBT+ diversity and education.

Meryn Finlay took to the podium as a first-time speaker to raise the debate on International LGBT+ rights, where the bizarre decisions of FIFA regarding the World Cup and Qatar were discussed amongst related topics.

Delegates also took part in productive and interesting workshops which explored taking control of the narrative and political education. The depth of the debate, the wealth of knowledge in the room, and the importance of the issues at stake cannot be understated when reporting on this event.

Every delegate demonstrated the common purpose of representing the concerns of their LGBT+ members and every delegate took the learning experience back to their workplace with renewed resolve.

If you identify as LGBT+ and would like to get involved get in touch with your branch. This type of friendly, diverse and inclusive event cannot be too highly recommended and is an excellent place to make your conferencing debut.