{"id":68491,"date":"2024-06-19T11:13:14","date_gmt":"2024-06-19T01:13:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/?p=116631"},"modified":"2024-06-19T11:13:14","modified_gmt":"2024-06-19T01:13:14","slug":"rtbu-appoints-new-national-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=68491","title":{"rendered":"RTBU appoints new National Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/RTBU.jpeg\" alt=\"\" style=\"float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;\"><figcaption>Image: jovannig\/stock.adobe.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><strong>The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rtbuvic.com.au\/\">Rail Tram and Bus Union<\/a> (RTBU) National Executive has appointed Alex Claassens as the union\u2019s new National Secretary, effective from 29 June 2024, following the resignation of outgoing National Secretary Mark Diamond.<\/strong><span id=\"more-116631\"><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Claassens assumes the national role after serving as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/rtbu-members-to-vote-on-opal-action\/\"><span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span> NSW<\/a> Branch Secretary for the past 15 years, and as a working train driver for over four decades.<\/p>\n<p><span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span> National President Victor Moore thanked Mark Diamond for his outstanding work in National Office.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMark Diamond began his time with the <span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span> as our National Lawyer, and then became National Secretary in October 2019,\u201d Moore said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMark worked night and day through a truly difficult period, and his efforts have transformed our union.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe led us through all of COVID and Coalition Federal Government attempts to thwart the union movement, before seeing us through a rapid period of change.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span> members wish Mark all the best in his new role with Hall Payne Lawyers, where his depth of expertise can be used more broadly for the entire union movement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span> Victorian Branch Secretary Vik Sharma said Mark Diamond\u2019s leadership had been characterised by his desire to drive change and create a stronger national union.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMark strengthened our campaigning and organising capabilities, bringing all branches and divisions together under one national strategic plan,\u201d Sharma said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFurthermore, Mark spearheaded several projects which will make the <span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span> of tomorrow a fundamentally different place from what it has been in the past.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe <span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span> is now more resilient, more focussed and more influential as a result of Mark\u2019s leadership.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mark Diamond\u2019s achievements as National Secretary include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The <span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span>\u2019s acquisition of Training Ahead Australia \u2013 a Registered Training Organisation that is currently being converted into a Not-for-Profit organisation so rail workers across Australia have access to high-quality industry training;<\/li>\n<li>The establishment of Rail Wallet \u2013 a new industry card for rail workers which will improve compliance and skills portability;<\/li>\n<li>Successfully opposing the mandatory audio and video in-cab surveillance of train drivers;<\/li>\n<li>Advocating for and securing a review of the Rail Safety National Law, which has just been finalised and approved by the Infrastructure and Transport Minister\u2019s Meeting, and which makes a number of far-reaching recommendations to improve Australia\u2019s rail safety regime;<\/li>\n<li>Delivering operational improvements such as a new national membership system, and a quarterly national online member magazine;<\/li>\n<li>Amalgamating two Western Australian-based branches into one unified branch, and implementing structural changes to the Tasmanian Branch to secure its long-term financial viability; and<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Leading campaigns to grow rail manufacturing, secure the future of the rail freight sector and increase investment in public transport.<\/p>\n<p>Mark Diamond said he had been privileged to lead the <span data-markjs=\"true\">RTBU<\/span>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cElected trade union officials are only the temporary custodians of roles that are bigger than any individual,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut having stewardship of our great union, during this period of our movement\u2019s great and noble fight, has been an incredible honour.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/rtbu-appoints-new-national-secretary\/\">RTBU appoints new National Secretary<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/\">Rail Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/RTBU.jpeg\" alt=\"\"><figcaption>Image: jovannig\/stock.adobe.com<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The Rail Tram and Bus Union (RTBU) National Executive has appointed Alex Claassens as the union\u2019s new National Secretary, effective \u2026 <\/p>\n<p>The post <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/rtbu-appoints-new-national-secretary\/\">RTBU appoints new National Secretary<\/a> appeared first on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.railexpress.com.au\/\">Rail Express<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":1,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[163],"tags":[10376],"class_list":["post-68491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rail-industry-news-australia-new-zealand","tag-rail-express"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=68491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68492,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68491\/revisions\/68492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=68491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=68491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=68491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}