31st December 2020

New Year Message to RMT Members

Dear Colleague,

No one could have predicted at the start of 2020 that we would experience a year like the one we are now closing the book on. 

Transport workers have found themselves right in the front line of the COVID-19 pandemic, charged with the responsibility of keeping this country, and it's NHS staff and other key groups, moving while the virus has ripped through our communities. 

Each and every one of you is a hero and we know only too well the human cost, particularly amongst bus workers and others in public-facing roles. It remains a scandal that some support staff, particularly in catering and cleaning roles, have found themselves facing threats to their very livelihoods off the back of this crisis. Our taxi members have also been cut adrift by government This union stands by you at this critical time. 

We have seen wholesale threats of redundancies in the ferry sector and warnings of a jobs massacre offshore. We have campaigned relentlessly as a trade union to make the case for protecting our transport, shipping and energy infrastructure to ensure that the we are fighting fit to kickstart the economy as the vaccines roll out and the current restrictions lift.

We know that we will face new threats to jobs, pay and pensions in 2021. We need to be ready for that. As a strong, united and fighting trade union we will have to draw on all our resources in every sector and every workplace to see off those threats . That responsibility will fall on all of us but standing together at this crucial time will be ?the key to pulling through. 

Yours sincerely,

Mick Cash
General Secretary