RMT to hold protest in Holyhead on Friday 8th February for jobs, pay and Trade Union rights on Irish Ferries’ WB YEATS
Mick Cash, general secretary of the RMT, joins a picket line opposite Victoria Station in London, as hundreds of thousands of rail passengers face a week of travel chaos because of a five-day strike in an escalating dispute over the role of conductors.
Maritime union, RMT, will be holding a protest on Friday 8th February from 0630 at Holyhead Port, Anglesey LL65 1DR.
The protest will be targeting the 0815 sailing of the Cyprus registered WB Yeats with activists leafleting vehicle and freight passengers as they board the vessel in Holyhead Port.
The action will demand seafarer jobs, enforcement of employment law, and trade union rights on the €144m WB Yeats which Irish Ferries has just brought into service on this key commercial ferry route.
RMT General Secretary, Mick Cash said: “Irish Ferries, along with other Irish Sea operators such as Seatruck and P&O consistently flout employment law to cut ratings’ pay below the legal minimum for land-based workers in Eire and the UK.
“Scandalously low pay in the shipping industry has driven a fall in UK ratings of over 60% since the 1980s. Yet there are 87,000 ratings jobs in the UK shipping industry, with demand forecast to grow in the coming years.
“RMT is fighting to enable domestic seafarers to compete for these jobs by enforcing minimum wage legislation and ending nationality based pay discrimination.”
