rail
News and articles about work, policy and workers' struggles in transport and distribution around the world.
Transport for London workers vote for strike action over pensions
RMT members covered by the Transport for London Pension Fund have voted by a massive 15-to-one margin for strike action to protect the pension rights of people forced to leave their jobs through ill-health.
The union is calling on the employers involved (list below) to guarantee that they will not bring forward or support proposed changes that would dramatically affect qualification for ill-health pensions.
Virgin rail catering workers on strike
Manchester: 100 catering workers at Virgin Trains are on strike in support of a sacked colleague.
Rachel Tombling sustained injuries when her head hit a computer screen in an on-board shop when her train experienced rough riding - but was sacked for wilfully damaging it. The sacking was upheld at an appeal, and now workers from Virgin West Coast’s Manchester Piccadilly depot are on strike, having been out for three days so far.
London tube workers strike over safety
A section of the Bakerloo line is suspended as 150 workers stage a 24 hour strike over staffing levels.
Drivers and station staff walked off the job for 24 hours at 10pm last night (Thursday) over management plans to reduce the number of station staff available to remove passengers from trains. This has caused the closure of the Bakerloo line between Queens Park and Harrow and Wealdstone.
All’s fare in train robbery
Rob Ray looks into the strange case of train travel price hikes which have no apparent economic basis for Freedom newspaper
Two major train companies have announced large price rises this month, with Arriva deciding to raise their off-peak fares by over 30% and South West Trains 20%.
Anti-capitalist actions around mass transit in San Francisco, 1993-1995
A personal account of some actions towards encouraging a "culture of non-payment" in a big city public transit system.
In the spring of 1993, San Francisco Mayor Frank Jordan launched an attack on the living standards of the city’s working class by demanding a fare increase of 25 cents per ride on MUNI. MUNI is San Francisco’s main public transit system, made up of motor coaches, trolleys, metro trains, and the world-famous cable cars, with approximately 686,000 passenger boardings every weekday.
Argentina: railway station burnt by passengers
Angry passengers attacked and destroyed offices, before burning them down in protest at the atrocious state of the privatised service.
The trouble started when a train broke down 600 metres from Constitucion station, south of Buenos Aires. After 20 minutes a group of passengers (these trains are packed solid with no air conditioning and little ventilation) walked to the station to demand answers. When they did not get any they began to destroy the information offices.
Fare strike - San Francisco 2005
Pamphlet with first-hand accounts and analysis of the self-organised 2005 fare strike, in PDF and text format.
Fare strike in PDF format (2.14Mb)
Fare strike!
San Francisco 2005
First-Hand Accounts
INTRODUCTION
Canada: CN Rail lock out strikers
After increasing strike activity to five locations across Canada, CN Rail have locked out all participating employees.
CBC.ca reported that the dispute flared up again after union members rejected a tentative deal struck in February to end a 15-day walkout.
United Transportation Union workers in Ontario, British Columbia and Nova Scotia began rotating strikes late Tuesday to force Canada's largest rail carrier to return to the bargaining table.
1995: The French pensions strikes
A short history of the massive strike movement against welfare reform in France in 1995.
During November and December of 1995 France was gripped by the largest strike movement the country had seen in recent years. After three weeks of strikes workers forced a government climbdown over the issue of changes to pensions of public sector workers.
China: hundreds block railway line in benefits protest
Residents of Guixi in the Jiangxi province were angry at government plans which would see their wages and benefits cut.
The plans involve placing Guixi under the jurisdiction of the neighbouring district, which may mean a lowering of benefits and state wages for Guixi residents. Protestors blocked two rail connections for around six hours, including the heavily traveled line that runs from Shanghai in the east, cutting through Jiangxi to the southwestern city of Kunming.
