November 2023
REGIONAL NEWSLETTER
Issue 16
CONTACT US:
North East Region
Your North East Regional Council can be contacted at: NorthEastRegionalCouncil@rmt.org.uk And on our X (Twitter): @RMTNorthEast
VICTORY TO THE RMT We did it! Ticket offices have been given an indefinite stay of execution. What a campaign we had in our region. We never stopped during the consultation: working with local TUCs, disabled passenger groups, pensioners and local grassroots activists to highlight the massive effects these closures would have. We were everywhere – from a 300-strong rally at Berwick with Mick Lynch and Mayor of North Tyne Jamie Driscoll, to days in town centres, at stations, at Pride events and delivering postcards through doors. Local activists set up their own petitions, individuals took on letter-writing campaigns, and all in all garnered massive public support across a huge demographic. The upshot was an unprecedented number of returns via the public consultation, and we stopped this ridiculous attack in its tracks. We won! It truly was an alliance of RMT members, community and activists and was astonishingly effective. We were not just fighting the train operators, we were fighting the Tory government, and they were no match for the resilience of RMT members. You showed that these ticket offices do not belong to Mark Harper or the RDG or LNER or Northern or TPE. They belong to the community. There is nothing we cannot achieve when we stand together. Make no mistake, it is down to your efforts. We must keep up this momentum and ensure that we garner the same collective energy for the next attack on us, an attack which will doubtless be coming. This is a vital victory in our campaign: thank you.