It is vital that Scotland's ferry services support communities' recovery from Covid-19 and this is best achieved through public ownership and the full participation of communities, workers and passengers. The current Clyde and Hebrides Ferry Service operated by CalMac expires in September 2024, RMT is opposed to privatisation and wants all ferry services to be in the public sector. That's why we have launched the campaign for a People's CalMac. We are calling for: More investment - for more reliable, frequent and additional services. More affordable - with fairer ferry fares, including for commercial drivers. More of a say - with a stronger voice for communities, passengers and workers. More good jobs - already employing 1700 people, CalMac is at the heart of Clyde and Hebrides communities, as well as Scotland's maritime industry. Please sign our petition and write to your MSP and Councillor - you can find a model letter of the RMT website here - https://bit.ly/3JvK2Ip

Yesterday, 800 workers at P&O Ferries were sacked via Zoom call. This shameful act is devastating for these workers, their families and communities. This is a national scandal – it can’t ever be allowed to happen again. This must be turning point for workers’ rights in the UK. The government can stop this, but they will not act unless thousands of us speak up. If callous acts like this are allowed at P&O, they can happen anywhere.

Dundee City Council are trying to force through a disruptive restructure of all secondary schools in the area. If the changes were to go ahead, the council would band subjects together under one faculty. The council would remove principal teachers from secondary schools and replace them with a new position – “faculty heads”. The plans mean there would be fewer teachers in our already under-resourced schools and yet more disruption to students’ learning. The changes would significantly increase workload for teachers – that means less one-to-one time with students. We must show the council leader how many of us support these workers.

We must stand strong against bad bosses unnecessarily attacking workers and using anti-trade union tactics. Coventry City Council and their Labour Leader, George Duggins have failed the people of Coventry and they have failed the workers. Can you help us by writing an email to him, asking him to reinstate Pete, stop union-busting, stop strike breaking and pay the rate?

Pete is one of the 75 refuse workers in Coventry City who have been on an all-out strike since 31st Jan over a pay dispute. • The Council is reported to have spent in the region of 2.8 million of taxpayers’ money trying to break the strike and using contractor Tom White Waste to break the picket. • It would cost less than £300,000 to resolve the dispute, but it seems Coventry City Council is hell-bent on wasting taxpayers’ money. • Just recently, Coventry Council published an important untrue statement, saying the bin lorry drivers earn up to £52,163 a year. The truth is the hourly pay rate is £11.49-£14.37 meaning the lowest-paid earns a basic wage of just £22,183 a year. • This council has a history of wasting taxpayers’ money, including on fat cat salaries and golden handshakes. • Former deputy chief executive, Martin Yardley, was given more money than any other council staff member in the whole country in 2019/20 pocketing £573,660. • In 2018, the retiring finance chief waltzed off with just shy of £450,000. An attack on one is an attack on all! Please sign the petition

Sign our petition to demand fair fares and a properly funded railway that protects rail services, staffing and the climate.

Over the last decade, pay for civil servants and others covered by the pay remit guidance has been under attack and has lagged behind inflation, and pay levels and increases in the private sector. Individual departments have had their hands tied by the Cabinet Office and have been unable to offer fair pay increases for their staff – and it’s gone on for too long. This has been compounded by the absence of pay progression arrangements. Public servants deserve a fair deal – they are always important to our way of life, but their dedication has been crucial in getting us through the pandemic. The least they deserve is for their living standards to be maintained, and their knowledge, skills and experience rewarded. Among staff and employers there is a common recognition that pay systems are broken and in the need of fundamental reform and adequate funding. Please sign this petition for fair pay for those who help defend, protect, support and enhance all of our lives.

The new Waste to Energy plant planned at Skelton Grange could be a chance to bring hundreds of good, skilled jobs to the Leeds area. The £250m build project will have a huge impact when finished, powering 100,000 local homes. We need to ensure that terms and conditions are protected and enhanced, so we can bring everyone with us as we transition to a greener future – sustainability and development at the same time. We want an end to undercutting on pay and conditions, which harms our communities and creates resentment rather than collaboration. The National Agreement for the Engineering Construction Industry (NAECI) is comprehensive set of terms and conditions of employment for hourly-paid engineering construction workers on major projects across the UK. It’s a nationally agreed standard for good work in construction, and it’s a way to make sure that new projects meet their responsibilities. We think the NAECI agreement should be the baseline for everyone working on the build of the Skelton Grange Waste to Energy plant. It’s a commitment to the community that was proposed early on, but we are worried HZI and Leeds City Council will try to quietly drop this important safeguard if we don’t raise the pressure on it now. Join us and demand HZI and Leeds City Council get round the table with the unions Unite and GMB and agree to establishing NAECI standards across the site.

CHEP UK is a hugely profitable company, yet it is refusing to give its workers a pay rise that reflects the true value of their work & takes into account the UK's soaring living costs. While the Retail Price Index is currently over 7.5%, CHEP UK, which made profits of £60 million last year, has offered its workers a below inflation pay rise. This means a pay cut for CHEP workers in real terms. Rather than look after its workforce, CHEP appears to be more interested in boosting profits and rewarding its shareholders - who received a £50 million pay-out just last year. This has left the company's workers with no choice but to take a stand through strike action. We are asking you to support our campaign and demand that CHEP give their workers a fair pay rise and bring this dispute to an end. Simply put: workers should not be facing an attack on their living standards while company shareholders are raking in millions of pounds. Deliver Fair Pay for CHEP workers NOW!

If you’ve ever bought something from Primark, it’s likely come to you via Thrapston in Northamptonshire. Primark’s enormous national warehouse is based there, distributing to stores all over the country. The warehouse is run for Primark by international logistics firm DHL, who employ many hundreds of people on Primark’s behalf. Throughout the pandemic, DHL made long-running mistakes in calculating furlough pay for many staff. They now want to deduct the overpayments from the affected workers’ wages to claw the money back. Whether it’s fair or not, employers do have a right to do this under UK employment law. But workers have some protection in that they should be offered a fair payment plan, not expected to pay it back at once. Otherwise it can count as “unlawful deduction from wages”. That’s what’s happening for most workers at the site, but one group of 72 drivers and office staff are being expected to repay everything at once – in some cases up to £1,300 from one pay cheque! This is because DHL are transferring their employment to another company in February and they think they can get away with it. DHL are retaining the majority of the work at Primark’s warehouse, just not this part of it. And the workers will still be based at the same site and still working for Primark, just not on DHL’s payroll. It would cost DHL very little to play fair by these workers and set up longer term repayments, even after they’ve moved to the new employer. Through their union, URTU, these workers are challenging the decision, but there’s very little time left. Caught between an employer who are trying to get out of their responsibilities, and an imminent deadline, Primark need to step in now and tell DHL to sort it out if they are to have a decent working relationship at Thrapston going forward. They can’t allow employment laws in their warehouse to be breached so flagrantly. Can you please help us write to Primark? Showing customers care about what happens in their UK supply chain will have a big effect on them.

Impact on passenger safety, service and accessibility Research shows time and time again that passengers like and value ticket offices and ticket office staff. In the 2022 public consultation on ScotRail's proposals, 99% of respondents objected to the plans. Issues raised in the consultation included the impact on accessibility, access to NHS hospitals, station facilities, anti-social behaviour. The overwhelming opposition to the UK Government's plans to close around 1000 ticket offices last year also reinforced the value that passengers place on ticket offices. The Scottish Government's own research into women and girls safety found that staffed ticket offices make women and girls feel safer when travelling. Despite the overwhelming evidence about the importance of ticket offices for passengers, the Scottish Government and ScotRail are trying to press ahead with these plans that would  see reductions in the times that 70% of ScotRail's ticket offices are open. Impact on station staffing Ticket office staffing is the only regulated station staffing, meaning ticket offices are the only way for passengers to guarantee when staff will be at a station.  At some of the 101 stations, ScotRail has said that it will keep staffing hours the same, however, there's nothing to hold them to that, and the company could reduce station staffing in the future with no public consultation. We believe that this will lead to de-staffing by stealth.  Staffed ticket offices are the only way for passengers to be confident about when staff will be present at the station.  Outdated public consultation process Crucially, the 2022 public consultation was undertaken by a process that is now obsolete. At the time, the passenger watchdog Transport Focus could only object to train operator proposals based on a very narrow criteria relating to ticket sales data. However, the process now requires Transport Focus to take a range of factors into account including the impact on accessibility, access to facilities at the station, safety and security and future monitoring of change.  The Cabinet Secretary, Fiona Hyslop MSP has admitted she is aware the guidance on ticket offices has changed, yet she has still given ScotRail the go-ahead to proceed without needing to hold a new public consultation under the current process. RMT believes that basing these plans on a process that is now obsolete means these proposals lack any legitimacy. 

The BBC’s contribution to the UK public broadcasting landscape goes far beyond news and programming. The BBC provides ten TV services, BBC iPlayer, 10 UK radio stations, over 40 Nations and local radio stations, BBC Sounds and one of the UK’s most popular websites, all for just 43p a day. Here’s a few reasons why the BBC matters: • The BBC became the UK’s largest classroom during COVID-19 - with two thirds of primary school students using Bitesize education during lockdown • It brings us together – during the pandemic most people turned into the BBC for the latest updates • It creates jobs across the UK – already half of BBC jobs are outside London, with over £100 million invested in skills and training over the last 4 years • It supports our creative industries and local news – 39 local radio stations and countless local projects and careers in the creative industries. • Putting British values on the world stage – former UN Secretary General Kofi Anan called the World Service “Britain’s greatest gift to the world this century”. Despite numerous attempts to undermine the licence fee, no-one has come up with a better funding model that would protect its unique local, national and international reach. Any suggestions that the BBC should be funded by subscription or advertising revenue are wide of the mark. The public service ethos of the BBC to inform, entertain and educate is something that we should fiercely protect and fund properly. Join us. Help support our BBC.