Worker-led transition, not alliances with the bosses to expand drilling!

Photo credit: Nick Humphries. License details here.

RMT has co-signed an open letter, along with several energy industry bosses, demanding the continuation, and implicitly the expansion, of fossil fuel extraction, via drilling for oil.

This runs counter to resolutions passed at the union's AGMs in 2021 and 2026. The 2021 policy explicitly commits the union to opposing fossil fuel extraction. It says we will not "line up with employers to defend the indefensible". The 2026 policy, submitted by the union's OILC branch, which organises offshore energy workers, reaffirms the union's commitment to a worker-led transition out of fossil fuels.

The union has justified its support for the bosses' letter by twisting policy to imply our position is for a transition in the future, but an expansion of drilling in the meantime.

This approach is dangerous. As temperatures soar and RMT members suffer through successive heatwaves, our union should not be demanding policy shifts from government that would make the situation worse.

The fact we are co-signing letter with energy industry bosses at all is shocking. Workers and bosses do not have shared interests. These people want to protect their profits, and will drive down our members' wages and cut their jobs when they deem it necessary to do so.

RMT must withdraw its support for the bosses' letter and respect AGM policy. Instead of lining up with the bosses, we should put our energy into campaigning for the approach set out in "Our Power", the workers' plan we helped develop, along with several other energy industry unions, in 2023.

2021 AGM policy

This Union notes that scientists estimate that we have less than 12 years to radically reduce fossil fuel emissions or face irreversible ecological damage. We are inspired by the radicalism and militancy of youth climate strikers and others taking direct action to highlight this crisis and demand radical action from governments. We believe climate change is a class issue, and that workers’ agency is crucial to affecting the transformation of our economy and society necessary to prevent climate catastrophe.

This Union further notes the RMT OILC branch bulletin, distributed to delegates at the 2019 AGM, which stated: "We should be developing standardised safety and competence/training standards which allow our workers to move seamlessly from oil and gas to decommissioning and into renewables." This Union endorses this approach to transition, which centres workers' control over the process.

This Union calls for a "Socialist Green New Deal" based on policies such as:

- a national climate service/strategy, manufacturing, installing and training in renewable technologies and eliminating waste
nationalising energy supply/generation including Big Six energy companies, creating an integrated democratic national energy system (not public companies competing with private ones in the marketplace)
- nationalising public transport – bus, rail and tram – as part of an expanded, free or radically cheaper and democratic system
- a public programme of insulation and building and retrofitting zero-carbon council housing/public buildings
- a million well-paid, public, unionised climate jobs
- ending fracking, fossil fuel extraction and airport expansion with no loss of jobs, with transition/decarbonisation plans to be developed by workers in affected industries, with guarantees of alternative employment
- investment in alternative, socially useful jobs and guarantee living standards and communities, not line up with employers to defend the indefensible
- 100% of the country's electricity and heat from renewable sources by 2030.

This Union further notes the policy of our London Transport Regional Council for a "workers' and passengers' plan" for Transport for London, which provides a model for discussing transition and decarbonisation plans based on workers' control.

This Union therefore resolves to:

- emphasise in propaganda around our own disputes that, in fighting for a well-funded, properly staffed, and expanded public transport system (i.e. a lower-emissions form of transport), we are also fighting against ecological damage
encourage reps, Branches, and Regional Councils to develop workers' plans for all employers where RMT organises, proposing policies for decarbonisation that can be taken up as industrial and political demands
- encourage Branches and Regional Councils to invite youth climate strikers to their meetings to discuss their movement
make a donation to the Youth Strike 4 Climate fund appeal
- issue a statement of solidarity, from the RMT at national level, with the youth climate strikes
- ensure that RMT members working in the energy industry, e.g. offshore, are centrally engaged in discussions about worker-led transitions to a zero-carbon economy
- support protests and counter-actions at the COP26 Climate Conference, due to take place in Glasgow in November 2020, and participate in the ITUC's counter-conference
- reaffirm our support for the Campaign Against Climate Change TU Group and the "One Million Climate Jobs" campaign.

2026 AGM policy

The National Executive Committee and the General Secretary must determine and clarify a clear energy policy that provides a path to a Just Transition for offshore energy workers/RMT members and provides genuine energy security. We must use our seat on the North Sea futures board to demand a clear path to a Just Transition for the workforce and communities involved, and avoid the Thatcher style ideological approach which decimated thousands of workers and their communities when the Tories discarded the coal industry in pursuit of oil and gas. A genuine Just Transition pathway through a RMT clear policy will support the OILC Branch in being able to compete with, and work with the other offshore unions pursuing demands for a Just Transition.