Deep Sea Update February 2025
A MESSAGE FROM YOUR NATIONAL SECRETARY Dear Colleagues,
Since the beginning of the year, RMT has reenergised our focus on the deep-sea sector. This is an admission that there are areas that we need to improve, areas we must look to modernise and analyse how effective we are structurally within the deep-sea sector. There is an old saying, “the past we inherit, the future we build”. We have reflected upon our deepsea organising strategy within the union, and we must build and develop our activity levels and organising across all employers where we have recognition. To do this, we have recently introduced sector specific organising meetings to highlight the challenges and successes within your sector, and these will continue on a regular basis to identify what we need to focus on, how this can be delivered and where we are seeing success. However, to be better organised and more effective in communicating we need more members to become active within the union. We have seen investment across some employers to improve internet connectivity and some are committed to installing improved internet connectivity in 2025. This gives us an opportunity to better
engage as a union with our members. We have recently introduced regular virtual meetings on some vessels when they are away from the UK coast and this is something that gives members an opportunity to be updated, ask questions and develop priorities. To develop and become better organised onboard your vessel and within your company we need members who are willing to become more involved in building a stronger union presence within every workplace. This may be as a rep, a point of contact, a health and safety rep or an equalities rep. By becoming active you can stimulate discussion and help improve 2-way communication from your vessel/ company to your respective lead officer. We will also be looking to organise a workshop for deep-sea sector reps to meet and discuss your current issues, because irrespective of your employer we know that there is alignment of your issues within the sector. I hope you enjoy the content of this update and would encourage members to get in contact with myself to discuss becoming more active or writing an article for a future edition which we hope to produce on a quarterly basis.
Regards, Darren Procter