PROTESTING AGAINST TUBE TICKET OFFICE CLOSURES

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: april 2015 :: RMTnews 12 R MT members and supporters protested at Tube stations across London last month against the closure of Tube ticket offices. Transport for London is pressing ahead with closing all London Underground ticket offices and is doing so without consulting passengers or adequately trialling the impact first. This is in order that closed ticket offices can be leased out to retail businesses, a short- sighted step that will exacerbate already dangerously high and rising peak passenger through- flow. RMT regional organiser John Leach said that TfL’s conduct in ignoring criticism including from workers representatives, the statutory passenger body London Travelwatch and, in the case of ex-Silverlink stations, in defiance of legal obligations, was a scandal. “Given the ongoing reduction in staffing levels, and the impending introduction of night time opening of some Tube lines, remaining LUL workers are set to be asked to work anti-social hours frequently. “Clearly, LUL’s proposals - if enacted - would see the health and well-being of staff suffer as a result of having to often switch between day and night shifts,” he said. RMT was joined with other concerned organisations, including Hands Off London Transport will be holding protests and leafleting at stations across the capital in the near future RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that the fight to stop the closure and smashing up of ticket offices, and the axing of station staff, would go on and last month’s series of demonstrations marked a ramping up of the RMT campaign to stop this cash-led carve up of jobs, services and safety. “The recent shocking incidents at Clapham South and Baker Street, where a woman and child ended up under trains, shows the importance of a properly staffed railway where services and safety come first. “The overcrowding at both tube and railway stations proves that transport bosses are trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot alongside a backdrop of cuts to staffing and basic passenger services. “That toxic combination is a recipe for disaster and that is the message we will be taking to the public in Fridays series of London-wide events,” he said. PROTESTING AGAINST TUBE TICKET OFFICE CLOSURES