From my mailbox, addressing
RMT▸ members.
CHANGES TO TICKET OFFICES - GREAT WESTERN RAILWAY
A formal document has been received from Great Western Railway (GWR▸ ) management outlining the company's approach to station operations. While some points align with previous decisions made by the Union's National Executive Committee (NEC» ), several proposed changes require urgent attention.
After reviewing the company's proposals and the report from your Lead Officer, the NEC has directed me to launch a recruitment campaign within GWR to strengthen industrial support. This action is necessary given the company's failure to properly consult and negotiate with your Union. If you know a colleague who is not yet a member of the RMT, please encourage them to join [snip]
In addition, the NEC has instructed me to prepare a ballot matrix for all Station Grade members within GWR.
The industrial ballot will be in response to:
The proposed changes to Ticket Offices
The unilateral 'watering down' of safety-critical duties of dispatch staff
Concerns regarding single staffing of gate line members.
If your job title, address, or workplace has changed recently, it is essential that you update your details. You can do so by:
[snip]
Frustratingly, GWR is using current legal loopholes under minimum service legislation to bypass public consultation. As a result, the NEC has also instructed me to escalate our campaign by raising awareness among RMT members, the public, disability rights groups, and other vulnerable campaigning groups about the detrimental impact of these changes. This effort will build on the Union's powerful 'Save Our Stations' initiative. Additionally, the Union is considering a coordinated national campaign to challenge similar threats across the railway network.
I trust this keeps you advised, and I will continue to keep members updated on this situation.
Yours sincerely,
Michael Lynch
General Secretary
The Coffee Shop looks to
passengers and on that basis the above is provided for information and I have snipped out the member recruitment detail - but easy enough to find for readers who need it (and happy to share if you personal message me).
I queued at a ticket office yesterday - not a GWR one - and watched as several customers in front of me were handled by a lady clerk who had to be robust and was probably grateful for the screen she was behind, rather than being a roaming agent in the public area. It struck me that whilst the majority of customers no longer buy a ticket from a staff member in front of every journey, there are still significant number who do and who need help with a system which does not seem easy, obvious or friendly to use for everyone. I was also struck by the kindly advise to one person laying out the options that person had for purchase, and helping that person chose the most appropriate ticket rather than a more expensive one that would have bought more than needed.
It's a similar equation to the Banks closing large numbers of their branches - there is an ever dwindling number of customers needing/wishing to transact face to face, so retaining them at their current number simply makes no sense whatsoever, and so they are being closed.
As a friend of mine who works for Lloyds in a reasonably senior, strategic role said "if you want us to keep all our branches open, ask yourself how much you'd be prepared to pay for us to do so?"
Perhaps it's a similar equation for rail ticket offices. Put simply, if the 12-15% of customers who still wish to use them want them all to stay open in their current form, how much extra are they prepared to pay for their rail tickets? Or do they expect the taxpayer to do so for them?
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