DISABLED PROTEST AGAINST RAIL CUTS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may 2013 :: RMTnews 6 DISABLED PROTEST AGAINST RAIL CUTS S ecurity and safety staff employed by STM Security Group on the London Overground contract will be taking industrial action later this month in a dispute over bullying and harassment and an attempt to impose workplace changes without agreement. In this long-running dispute, RMT officials had put forward a possible solution to the dispute which STM management were receptive to. However, without warning STM refused to meet with RMT despite continued requests from the union. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union had continuously asked SMT for meetings in an attempt reach a settlement but management’s attitude has become actively hostile. “RMT feels completely misled, as this is an act of serious bad faith which has undermined the dispute resolution process. “It is now clear that management have no interest in resolving this matter and are content to bury their heads in the sand, while bullying and harassment remains on the increase,” he said. T he RMT-backed Action for Rail campaign recently joined forces with disability groups to highlight the disastrous impact that the government’s transport cuts will have on disabled and older passengers. A day of action included a packed seminar in Parliament where the Transport Minister was grilled by campaigners over the impact of staff cuts and then rail workers and disability groups joined forces to hand out postcards to passengers at Kings Cross station. Campaigning was supported by the publication of a survey commissioned by Action for Rail, Transport for All, the National Pensioners Convention and Disabled People Against the Cuts. The survey showed show that disabled passengers hugely value the availability of staff on trains and at stations. 39 per cent of disabled passengers say that they rely on staff assistance, a further 32 per cent found it helpful. Key benefits that staff provide include enhancing personal safety and security, providing travel information, buying tickets and help access facilities and getting on and off trains. The report said that over 75 per cent said the loss of staff would make train travel difficult, with over a third saying that it would deter them making some journeys on make travel impossible. A particularly worrying finding from the survey was that over a quarter said that they had been abused or suffered a hate crime while using the railways, this jumped to over 40 per cent for those that use wheelchairs. Losing staff from trains and stations will be a disaster for many people who face this kind of hostility and threat. Action for Rail point out that the government, through its Access Action Plan, have asked all train operators to produce Disabled Person’s Protection Plans (DPPPs) to demonstrate how they will broaden access to the railways for disabled passengers. Yet at the same time proposals in the McNulty Review, endorsed by both the government and rail operators, indicates that there could be cuts to tens of thousands of guards, station and ticket office staff who disabled passengers rely on. The day of action with disabled groups followed a hugely successful national day of action in March on the 50th anniversary of the Beeching cuts where RMT activists joined forces with the other rail unions and campaigners to leaflet passengers at over 80 stations nationwide. To keep up to date with the campaign visit http://actionforrail.org/ SAFETY AND SECURITY STAFF TAKE ACTION IN FIGHT FOR JUSTICE