Issuu

May 2022

REGIONAL NEWSLETTER

Issue 2

North East Region THE NORTH EAST VOTES YES TO STRIKE ACTION The results are in for the national ballot and it’s a resounding YES! Members in our region have shown they have had enough of the disingenuous statements from bosses around pay. We will not accept an erosion of our terms and conditions or any attacks on our jobs, and we will fight against the real-term pay cut being forced upon us. 40,000 RMT members were balloted nationwide, comprising workers from Network Rail and 15 train operating companies. We have shown we are determined to keep defending rail jobs, pay and conditions and keep the railway safe and reliable. Any attacks on frontline workers create an unsafe railway, be it on trains, on track, or in stations. It’s a false economy. The media attacks on our loyal and hardworking members will now be ramped up: expect to be demonised by so-called experts citing “what about the nurses?”. A valid question; they deserve a pay rise in line with inflation just as much as we do. We at RMT are the union that will bust this attack on workers who were rightly hailed as heroes during the pandemic, and if we win this fight other sectors will follow. It is not a race to the bottom. We achieve so much as we are a fighting trade union – we are only as strong as our members, and these members have shown we have had enough. We are rightfully angry because we have record numbers of people in poverty despite being in work; we are suffering through a low-paid economy due to unions being smashed in this country. Workers deserve a fair slice of the pie as the wealth is created by those workers. Your democratically elected executive committee are not 'union barons' or 'militants' – they are lay workers expressing the members’ voices. They will decide on our strategy going forward based on what YOU the member have told them via this ballot. Keep fighting, keep believing: together we can win.

UNITY IS STRENGTH

ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOUR: RAILWAY STAFF REACHING BREAKING POINT Since the conclusion of the Covid-19 lockdowns, railway workers have reported a steep increase in anti-social behaviour on trains, particularly on days when huge numbers of sports fans travel around the country. RMT News reported in November that after surveying 5200 members, 88% had been verbally abused in recent months. Train Managers are being assaulted and threatened with rape for daring to check tickets. Tynemouth Metro station recently had to close for a night when it was effectively colonised by gangs of unruly youths that made the safe running of the railway impossible.

Image taken from @rokerreport on Twitter showing an LNER train when a smoke-bomb was activated after the recent Sunderland football game. The train was brought to a halt and delayed while British Transport Police boarded the train to deal with the situation. On the same night, staff at Darlington Station reported that the police needed to meet almost every train that stopped at the station, mostly due to fights between football fans and people who had been attending York Races.

Your North East Regional Council wants to help: what changes would you like to see to help improve these horrific shifts where you can be left fearing for your life? How can RMT support you and advocate for your rights? Let us know what YOU want to see done. Together, we can make a difference.

Why is this so much more of an issue than before the pandemic? There were some suggestions when restrictions were first lifted that people were unused to such quantities of alcohol amid the resumption of 'party culture', and that people were entitled to celebrate after being locked down for so long. Ticketless travel was rife, after months of fare-dodgers easily skipping past open gatelines and ticket checks. But now the UK has been in a state of near-normality for months, and the problem is not abating. If anything, it is getting worse. Staggeringly, the culture on the railway appears to be leaning away from reporting incidents of anti-social behaviour and abuse to management, or in some cases even attempting to contact BTP. This seems to boil down to one connecting factor: invisibility. Across the rail network employees are reporting that their managers would rather bury their heads in the sand and pretend all is well, claiming that they never see such poor behaviour from passengers therefore it must not exist. Equally, cuts to the British Transport Police by the Tory government have left the service so stretched, some stations can go days without seeing an officer, let alone trains.

It is vital to report every single instance of violence at work, no matter how small it may seem at the time. If anything is to change, a picture must be built that shows exactly how the current situation regarding anti-social behaviour is severe and causing suffering amongst railway worker. RMT Regional Officer, Micky Thompson, recently met with Northumbria Police and Crime Commissioner, Kim McGuinness. There are some tentatively positive signs of change, including increasing penalty fares and a roll-out of more body-worn cameras. However, it is clear that there is a long way to go to tackle this issue.

MAY DAY RALLY On Saturday April 30th, members from your North East Regional Council attended the recently-revived annual Tyne and Wear May Day Rally in Newcastle. May 1st is International Workers Day. It is a celebration of the working class and is an opportunity for people to get together to meet up, march with trade union banners and learn about and fight back against attacks to workers. Traditionally there are speeches, and it is always a positive, uplifting day. This year in Newcastle we were fortunate that our National President, Alex Gordon, was one of the speakers. We met at Exhibition Park for the march to Grey’s Monument, and in true railway fashion we were late arriving and then got stuck in a tunnel (apparently local underpasses were not designed with the Newcastle Rail & Catering banner in mind). Alex gave a hard-hitting speech to the assembled activists about our national dispute, and how our fight will be the catalyst to bust the crippling wage freeze that is already causing mass hardship and poverty. He reiterated that wages will only rise if workers assert their collective bargaining power through their trade unions. Once again your region were there promoting our cause and it was good to see fellow activists applauding our banners as we marched. Durham Miners’ Gala up next on July 9th!

RMT ORGANISING AT LUMO Lumo is the new open-access train operating company based in Newcastle: it currently does not officially recognise the RMT for its Customer Service Ambassadors. We are working to recruit and organise the CEAs, with teams of RMT activists out on the platforms talking to the non-members about the benefits of joining RMT and getting collective bargaining rights. We have already been able to represent members on individual matters and look to continue to build the RMT membership and organisation in the CEA grade. Let’s support our new Lumo member: if you know anyone or meet any Lumo workers ask them to join. We all need a union and we will be asking Lumo to recognise RMT. We want to give our Lumo members the same collective bargaining rights and protections we all have across the railway.

REGIONAL CONTACTS NERC CONTACTS Martin McCleary - Lead Recruiter Tel: 07711 570848 berwickrail@rmt.org.uk Donald Graham - Org Unit Tel: 07753 748074 d.graham@rmt.org.uk Jessica Robinson - Women's Officer Tel: 07784 224412 jpleather89@gmail.com

REGIONAL OFFICES

We welcome contributions to this newsletter - if you would like to write an article, please contact any one of the officers above.

BRANCH EMAILS Bedlington: bedlington@rmt.org.uk Berwick Rail: berwickrail@rmt.org.uk Newcastle & Gateshead: newcastlegateshead@rmt.org.uk Newcastle Rail & Catering: newcastlerailcaterin@rmt.org.uk North East Shipping: northeastshipping@rmt.org.uk Darlington: darlington1@rmt.org.uk Teesside: teesside@rmt.org.uk York: yorkdistrict@rmt.org.uk North York Moors: north.moorsRail@rmt.org.uk Hexham: hexhamrail@rmt.org.uk

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