Transport

Jeremy Westlake

has the second best take

He's in charge of the cash

and makes sure he gets a big stash

Andrew Haines

carefully explains

That his £593,000 pay is not a perk -

He really is worth twenty of the people who do the actual work

---

*Chief Executive Officer of Network Rail

Pompous & Opulent
Prosperous & Ostentatious
Profiteering & On-the-take

Parsimonious & Obstinate
Penny-pinching & 'Orrible
Private & Obscene

Perfidious & Odious
Poisonous & Objectionable
Punishing & Oppressive

Petition & Organise
Protest & Outrage
Picket & Occupy

Public & Ownership.

The TUC's Disabled Members' Committee has made this statement: Accessible public transport is essential for disabled people to participate in society on an equal and independent basis. To be genuinely accessible, public transport must be adequately staffed by workers with decent standards of training, pay, conditions and security of employment.

At this year's TUC Women's Conference, one of the motions we debated was about working shifts, particularly women's safety on late shifts. This was my contribution to the debate.

You can watch the video of this speech here.

I'm Janine Booth, RMT, and I've worked on London Underground for over 25 years.

Published in Solidarity 610, 20 October 2021.

The Night Tube in London will resume on two lines from 27 November, in a move promoted as ensuring safety for women. However, the reality is more complex, and women’s safety requires increased Night Tube staffing.

At Labour party conference, I spoke in the debate about local government, shortly after London Mayor Sadiq Khan had spoken. This is the second part of what I said.

This is the text of my contribution to the debate at TUC Disabled Workers' Conference on 10 March 2019.

Hi. I'm Janine Booth, representing RMT. Our members work in the rail, road transport, shipping and offshore energy industries.

Back before barring blacks became banned
Bristol buses blocked brown-skinned blokes becoming buscrew

But better Bristolians batted back
bit the bullet and boycotted the buses

Bent-backed, booted bipeds bicycled,
as bitter brushes blazed between bile and benevolence

Bands of brave, belligerent banner-bearers
branded the ban biased, barbarous balderdash

A version of this was published in Solidarity 568:

This story of colour bars in the UK railway and bus industries begins after the Second World War, when Britain had a labour shortage and people moved to Britain in increasing numbers from Caribbean countries and elsewhere.

NUR Opposes Racism