CLERICAL GRADES CONFERENCE

10 Stop ticket office closures demanded by the McNulty agenda, declared RMT’s annual supervisory, clerical and other salaried grades conference meeting in Greenwich last month. Peter March, Hull congratulated the union on the on-going campaign over the Northern Rail and Transpennine Express (TPE) franchise proposals. “The attack on our grade is linked to the McNulty report and is down in black and white in the prospectus proposals for the Northern Rail and TPE refranchising which proposes ticket office closures and doing away with back office functions and station supervisory roles amongst many other culls. “TPE, Northern Rail and ‘Rail North’ are all looking to introduce the use of smart cards in order to close ticket offices and reduce staff,” he said . Peter said that relief regional organiser North Craig Johnston had led an excellent campaign in raising awareness to the public over plans to cut thousands of railway Jobs. “However there has been more emphasis on the role of the guard than that of supervisory and clerical jobs in this campaign. “RMT is an all grades union and as such we believe equal emphasis should be put on the many clerical jobs that are under threat as well as threats to other grades,” he said. Conference also heard form Teresa Pearce, Labour MP for Erith and Thamesmead, who has put down Early Day Motion 863 about safety and security role of rail station staff. In the EDM Ms Pearce, a member of RMT’s Parliamentary group, warns against plans to reduce station staff numbers. “Passenger Focus supports proper staffing at stations and has called for obligatory staffing initiatives as part of the government's franchise agreements with operators “Numerous stations are already de-staffed and further cuts at railway and tube stations will increase platform train interface risks to passengers as well as stations becoming unwelcoming and inaccessible places,” the EDM says. It also calls on the authorities to ensure that all rail operations guarantee a sufficient number of trained station staff to safely dispatch trains, protect the travelling public and maintain security at all stations. Brian Woods, Feltham called on the union to ensure that FIGHTING FOR JOBS RMT’s clerical grades conference calls for resistance to ticket office closures