OUR railway is currently under attack for purely ideological reasons. The staff, the way they work, the service they offer and the safety that the workers and passengers should expect, are all under attack.
This hits us in the middle of the cost-of-living and climate crises, when we need a huge expansion of properly staffed, decarbonised, electrified, accessible and affordable public transport, and a green travel industry.
Trade unionists across multiple unions and sectors have undertaken a prolonged period of industrial action following years of real-terms pay cuts.
In the 1980s, Thatcher planned a systematic attack on the trade unions and the working class with her privatisation programme, taking on the most powerful sector of the time, the miners.
Four decades later, another Tory government is taking on the unions again by attacking our members.
Make no mistake, this decision is political. If the government gets away with removing up to 2,000 front-line jobs from the railway, it will not stop there.
The threatened closure of almost all ticket offices in England is designed to cut jobs and increase profits on the railway. Passenger journeys will decrease because travel information will not be available for many. Only ticket office staff know the best routes and the cheapest fares. Closures profoundly affect those who do not have access to the internet or a credit card, or who cannot find a working ticket machine.
Many ticket types are not available online or from machines. Vulnerable passengers — including women, elderly, young and disabled people — will feel less safe on the network, especially after dark.
Disabled people who cannot buy appropriate tickets online or from machines will be unable to travel. Denying access to the railway is a significant equalities issue, and staff face exposure to disability discrimination too.
Assaults and other abuse of staff are already rising — having fewer staff will make work unsafe for the remaining front-line workers, and communities.
Rail unions are fighting tooth and nail against the closures, and there is huge support from the public for our campaigns.
The extended “consultation” closes on September 1. If you have not yet contributed, please do so at mstar.link/LDNtravel (London) or mstar.link/RailJobs (elsewhere).
Front-line railway staff, including ticket office workers, are often the first to identify vulnerable children being used for “county lines” drug distribution. They are also often the first to spot depressed or suicidal people.
Thousands of lives are saved by front-line staff talking to people seeking to end their lives on the railway.
In 2020-21 more than 1,810 suicide attempts on the railway were prevented. At least 20,000 railway employees have received training on preventing suicides. Many of these will be people whose jobs are now at risk.
I am standing to be elected general secretary of TSSA, after a long career within the industry, the trade union movement and as a TSSA official.
As GS, I will not accept the attacks on our members and jobs and will demand negotiations directly with the government, rather than franchise holders and the Rail Delivery Group (whose hands are tied by government ministers).
All members and reps must be brought into planning the fightback, including looking at further industrial action as a matter of urgency — not forgetting that our members have still not received the agreed pay rise.
We have a lot of work to do in TSSA including fighting for Covid justice for members and their families — most notably for the family of our deceased member, Belly Mujinga, forced to work on the front line despite being clinically vulnerable — who have not yet received it.
We must install the ventilation and filtration we need on all public transport and in all offices, public buildings and stations. We have to keep everyone safe and confident to travel both now, and in the event of future pandemics which are sadly very likely, due to abuses of our world through profiteering, factory farming and exponential environmental damage.
TSSA conference delegates demanded we centre and act on our climate justice policies, fighting to take back energy, transport and utilities under public control, to reduce transport greenhouse gasses and air pollution by creating the climate jobs we need to achieve an affordable integrated transport system and electrified rail run on renewables.
This will help to get people out of cars and off short-haul flights and to get freight on the rails. I also want to work with our members in the travel industry to produce a Green Travel Trade plan.
In the current context of revelations of sexual harassment and bullying in many organisations, including trade unions and political parties, many of our members are particularly concerned about sexual harassment and bullying at work — and sadly we know this has been a problem within our union.
TSSA acknowledges that it has a lot of work to do following the Kennedy Inquiry to urgently correct all that has gone wrong in the last few years.
However, we need transformative change, not just a new set of people in charge. We must work with our under-represented demographics via our Self Organised Groups to make TSSA a truly diverse, representative and, crucially, member-led union.
The hoarding of power at the top of trade unions is reflected in the loss of democracy, especially at a local level, in the Labour Party.
Trade unions should be working together with our political representatives to end racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia and ableism and restore grassroots democracy to our movement, to make it inclusive and fighting fit.
I believe that trade union general secretary salaries in general should be at a point that keeps them in touch with union staff and with their members. If elected, I will only take pay at the collectively consulted staff rate at the appropriate band rather than the advertised rate for the job.
The additional money will be set aside as seed funding to establish an industrial action hardship fund, and I will seek to identify opportunities to embed and further grow this fund. Never again should our members be starved into accepting sub-par pay, terms and conditions, and the loss of secure work.
The public is on our side — together we can save jobs and fight for the sustainable publicly owned transport system we need for the 21st century.
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