SEAFARERS working for the Royal Fleet Auxiliary took their campaign against low pay to the doors of the Labour Party conference in Liverpool yesterday.

The protest took place ahead of three days of strikes planned from Monday next week in a dispute involving workers belonging to RMT and Nautilus International unions.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “This is a straightforward dispute that’s got a straightforward answer.” 

On the degradation of workers’ real-terms pay he said: “There’s no reason why RFA mariners have fallen behind the police, fallen behind all the blue-light services, the ambulance workers, the firefighters and the armed forces themselves.”

Nautilus campaigns organiser Robert Murtagh said: “A 30 per cent real-term pay cut — it’s not good enough.

“As our general secretary said, the message that this government has sent so far is the same message that has been sent for the last 14 years, which is we won’t value you, we won’t support you, we won’t give you the pay rise that you deserve. 

“This is a government that says and talks about change. It’s time to put it into action. 

“Dither and delay is not good enough.”