GFTU BGCM Minutes 2017

five test cases of whether we believe that we knit together, then we merge and

we become one union, so we do not do it immediately, we give ourselves two

years to make sure that that fits there. So we did that with the Dutch and

where that benefits us we use the legislation and the social benefits of that

country, so in the Netherlands where their social benefits are far superior to the

UK, that is what we use for our members, because we are a merged union, we

are an international union. We do not have to worry about the UK, we just go

straight to the Netherlands.

For example, in the Netherlands they do not have to negotiate pay, they get a

guaranteed pay increase for the whole of the Netherlands. It is more. They get

a guaranteed pay increase. This year it is 2.5, so we start at 2.5. Whereas we

will be out there negotiating within the UK companies, we do not have to do

that in the Netherlands. We merged with the Swiss and I know there were a

few laughs, because there was between us as well when we did it. What is the

reason for that? I know first-hand, because I have just been involved in a

campaign between the Rhine and the Danube going through Germany and up

from Rotterdam down to Basel and it is the inland waterways. It is what the UK

should have been using for the last 50/60 years. We have got canal networks,

yet we still put trucks on the roads and here we are between Switzerland and

Holland and across the Danube, a massive structure of transport, all

unorganised, a lot of Eastern European seafarers that need organising and that

is what we are doing, we are organising in the inland waterways.

We have just moved into the wind farm sector, which is similar to that. We

have been organising now for about seven years in the super yacht sector,

30,000 potential British seafarers in the yacht sector alone. No one organises

them. No one looks after them. No regulations. No contracts of employment.

No terms. Millionaire owners do what they want when they want. I am

representing a woman at the moment. She got pregnant. They have sacked

her for being pregnant. They have sacked her partner on board as well,

because he does not fit in with how it looks. These are the ridiculous situations

we are having to fight now in 2017 when you think of the lads in the super

yacht in the super yacht sector. So again, because of our international

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