Deep-Sea Update August 2025
A MESSAGE FROM YOUR NATIONAL SECRETARY Dear Colleagues, Hopefully over the past few months you will have seen increased RMT visibility within the deep-sea sector. Visibility of RMT officials’ onboard visits are important for seafarer members, and we are prioritising deep-sea vessels when they’re in UK ports. Visibility is vitally important to me too, as your national secretary, because it allows me to observe your working environment, union noticeboards, mess rooms, accommodation standards and company communication with our members over issues like safety and employer benefits. We are focusing on organisation in the next quarter. We are building more effective representative structures, with a minimum in the deep-sea of one RMT representative on every vessel. We need RMT reps in all departments so we can persuade all employers to facilitate regular shipboard meetings to discuss the issues that are most important to you and your colleagues, and not just when your ship is in port. To do this we need the active involvement of more RMT members. This will improve the service you get from your union and raise standards onboard your vessel and in the wider deep-sea sector. That is why we are organising reps’ courses specifically designed for RMT members in the deep-sea. Details will be circulated shortly but the aim is to develop a network of reps across the companies where we organise so that RMT reps and activists can discuss shared concerns and develop as a collective in the deep-sea sector. We are also advertising for RMT representatives at Foreland Shipping and PNTL. These are for three-year terms and will help retain the skills and experiences of existing reps whilst recruiting a new generation of RMT reps who want to get involved in the workplace and in the union.
National secretary Darren Procter (right) with Kevin Watson aboard the PNTL’s Pacific Heron earlier this month
RMT can never have too many active members and if you have any questions about what the rep’s role involves, then please get in contact. The one thing seafarers have when away at sea, is time. I strongly encourage deep-sea members to use that time to engage with your union at branch, regional or national official level to raise questions and to get involved in the union’s work to deliver jobs, better pay, conditions and training for Ratings in the deep-sea sector. Guidance, support and training are available to members on request. This is a good use of your time onboard and will help you and your union progress the industrial issues that matter to you and your colleagues onboard.
Regards, Darren Procter