Transport

Janine speaks as part of a panel on Covid-19, democratic ownership and the future of the economy in May 2020. - organised by Another Europe Is Possible. Video plus text of speech below.

It's just like any other Saturday night
but without the vomit and with no-one to fight

It's just like Night Tube but nobody's pissed and
the two people here are socially distant

It's just like every other morning after
but without the bleary eyes and laughter

There's no-one to beg from, no tickets to tout
because staying at home is the new going out

Also on the RMT London Calling website here.

Disabled transport workers are a significant and valuable part of the workforce that delivers transport to millions of passengers and freight consignments every day. Many of us are also particularly vulnerable during the current Covid-19 pandemic.

Today at TUC Women's conference, PCS moved a motion congratulating their members at BEIS for successful strike action, and drawing attention to the appalling conditions that outsouced workers, many of them women, face. I made the following contribution to the debate.

Congratulations to PCS on its brilliant win at BEIS and solidarity with your ongoing sturggles at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and elsewhere.

Your train is delayed
Because of leaves on the line
With trees still attached

A villanelle about the deaths of workers at the Crossrail Bond Street site.

Don't go down to level five
A killer's prowling in the deep
Stay away and stay alive

Worker bees construct a hive
of industry, where toxins seep
Don't go down to level five

The Rail Tram and Bus (RTB) Union’s Victoria branch has around eight thousand members, three quarters of whom work on the V Line (state-wide railway), Yarra Trams or Metro Trains Melbourne. On 22 August, I visited the union's office.

UNITY IS STRENGTH

When workers leave their homes to graft
by muscle or by brain
The least they need is safety from
the dangers and the strain
So those who wave their loved ones off
can wave them home again

Flowers will lie beside the line
where working people fell
For those who keep our railways safe -
they must be safe as well

Widening roads
parking lorries
carrying loads
of no-deal worries

Laying Tarmac
digging ditches
making car parks
burning bridges

Office holder
riding high on 
a hard Brexit shoulder
to pull over and cry on

Sailing boats away
laying mines
widening motorways
narrowing minds