Young members

The Council of Executives at their meeting of the 20th June 2011 have agreed to increase representation on the RMT Young Members Advisory Committee on the basis of five members per Region. I am therefore seeking nominations from Branches to take up these additional positions.

RMT General Grades Committee decision:

We note the report on the equality strand of the review of London Underground’s OSP (job cuts). We endorse the detailed critique of the job cuts’ impact on equalities, which can be found on file. This critique highlights that London Underground:

• calculates station staffing levels without considering the needs of equality groups
• uses methods for collecting information, categorising passenger journeys and assessing data which are deeply flawed and fail to account for equality issues
  

RMT Council of Executives decision:

We note the report [from the Organisation, Training and Education Sub-Committee]. However, we believe that our young members should not be treated differently from our other groups which have Advisory Committees, and therefore agree that the Young Members' Advisory Committee should consist of five seats per region.

We encourage all groups which have Advisory Committees to set up regional committee, to improve organisation, encourage member participation, and delegate their Representatives to the national Advisory Committees.

Report to RMT stations representatives from Janine Booth

Summary:

• London Underground does not consider the needs of equalities groups when calculating its station staffing levels.
• LU's methods for collecting information, categorising passenger journeys and assessing data are deeply flawed and fail to account for equality issues.
• LU did not carry out an adequate Equality Impact Assessment before going ahead with the OSP, despite being obliged by law to do so. The revisions it has made to the EqIA since then are minor and wholly inadequate.
  

The Durham Miners' Gala and the Tolpuddle Martyrs' Festival are tow important events in the unions calendar. Both take place in July, and this year, for the first time, the RMT has organised activities specifically for young members at both. Dave Marshall of the RMT Organising Unit says that these activities will be "combining education sessions with going along to and enjoying the events themselves."

The Durham Miners' Gala is from the evening of 7th July to the 11th. The Tolpuddle Festival is the following weekend from the evening of the 15th of July to the 17th.

Attached are RMT circulars and application forms for both events.

This resolution submitted by Neasden branch was carried unanimously by the March metting of the Regional Council:

This Regional Council notes the formation of the Young Members Advisory Committee, as per clause 1 of rule 12D.

This branch also notes the inconsistency of the basis of representation between the Young Members advisory committee (1 per region) and the other equal rights advisory committees, governed by rule 12A (5 Per Region).

This organising plan was agreed by the Regional Council Executive on March 8.

RMT has 12,614 members in the LTRC region, of these there is 1,527 that are classed as Young Members. The purpose of a Young Members' officer is to mobilise as well as organise these members into an active and effective part of our union.

The average age of a Trade Union representative is 47 years old, to properly organise our Young Membership is to be laying the foundations for a sustained future.

To all members of the ITF Young Workers Network

Apply Now for the 2011 Young Researcher of the Year Award

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A prize of 5000 Euros and an invitation to the annual summit of Transport Ministers, awaits the winner of the 2011 Young Researcher of the Year Award for the best paper analysing how transport can generate more benefits for society.

As a public body, London Underground has to carry out an assessment of the impact of any new policy on various equality issues. The attached file is LU's Equality Impact Assessment (EQIA) for its current OSP (policy of cutting 800 mainly-stations jobs). Below is the response to this document that I have written on behalf of RMT. You will see from this that LU's EQIA falls woefully short, and ignores key equality issues.