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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: october strike bulletin 2022 :: RMTnews T his special strike edition of RMT News is urging you to keep up the pressure and vote yes to industrial action to defend jobs, pay and conditions. The law requires your union to ballot you again and there must be a 50 per cent turnout. So, this is your chance to keep up the pressure on the employers and a government that wants to strip out staff from the rail network, close ticket offices and cut maintenance and service levels in the drive for profit. There is a poster on the back of this document which you can use in the workplaces to get the message out that we can only fight with a united voice if members get out and vote. If we do not resist these plans, we will see the erosion of our hard-won rights at work and we have seen what employers can do with the sacking of 800 P&O workers and their replacement with cheap agency workers. We cannot allow that to happen on the railways. To recap, the government and the employers currently want to close most ticket offices, rip up agreements dilute the role of the guard, remove catering grades, introduce seven day working, dilute pension benefits, tear up employment contracts and introduce fire and rehire. This union shall continue to negotiate in good faith, but the employers and government need to understand that our industrial campaign will continue for as long as it takes. It is clear that public support for our campaign against endless austerity and cuts continues to grow. We have seen demonstrations, meeting and other events up and down the country. High- profile cultural figures are responding in their own ways to keep up the pressure and show support. This government is on the ropes and if it can withdraw plans for more tax cuts for the rich it can pull back from stripping our railway network to the bone. Together we can win but you need to vote as soon as you receive your ballot paper this month. Michael Lynch "KEEP UP THE PRESSURE, VOTE YES!" A message from RMT general secretary Mick Lynch Companies being balloted: Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern Railway, South Western Railway, GTR (including Gatwick Express), Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and Network Rail.