Transport Salaried Staffs' Association

The costs and chaos from the franchising debacle continues to grow, with ministers’ deciding to extend existing franchises by as much as four years.

Think back to 2003. Ten years ago things were a little different. ‘Where is the love?’ by the Black Eyed Peas was the biggest single of the year, topping the charts for six weeks running. Perhaps more importantly, the invasion of Iraq was underway and the Human Genome Project had just been completed.

Tony Wheeler writes: A sentence of ‘death by 1,000 cuts’ was formerly a very unpleasant fate which originated in Imperial China as a slow form of execution before being banned in 1905. More than a century later it seems that Thomas Cook are intent on reintroducing this form of torture for their beleaguered employees.

Sam Fairbairn of the TSSA-backed People’s Assembly looks ahead to this summer’s major gathering of thousands of trade unionists and other campaigners working to oppose the government’s damaging austerity programme.

I have to admit that I’ve been watching the war of words being waged against our Welfare State and those on benefits with increasing anger. I have to declare an interest. In the early 1990s, I was dismissed from the electronics industry for trying to organise a union within a US multinational.

The denial of the basic rights of the Palestinian people – kept under military occupation for decades – has been described as a sore on the conscience of the world. Earlier this year, TSSA and Unite sent a joint delegation to Palestine – to observe, to offer solidarity and to develop ways in which people in Britain can help them achieve the freedom they have long sought.

Trams and tram-trains look set to play a growing role in connecting many communities. Paul Salveson takes a look at how they’re being integrated into heavy rail networks in Europe and asks whether that could be mirrored in Britain.

With most franchise decisions being pushed back by years, Christian Wolmar questions the government’s rush to shuffle the pack yet again on the one publicly-operated route.

March sees the fiftieth anniversary of the Beeching Report, whilst we’re now 20 years on from the start of the Tory’s programme of rail privatisation. Both were disasters for transport workers and the public alike, and both have had to be at least partially reversed.

This January marked the 20th anniversary of the introduction of legislation allowing for the break up and sell-off of British Rail.

In January, rail fares rose by an average of 4.2 per cent – in many cases a lot more. It is the tenth consecutive year that fares have risen above inflation, and with wages stagnant, many travellers can no longer cope.

TSSA rep Colin Savage tells the story of a great win at Amey Consulting, where through a concerted organising campaign, hundreds of extra employees now have the benefits of collective bargaining.

On Saturday 9 February an estimated 110,000 people joined the ‘Lift the Burden – Jobs not Debt’ marches called by the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.

As part of the Better Rail campaign, the ‘Year of Horror 2013’ got off to a strong start, with TSSA members and allies taking action against fare increases and threats to services.

Sam Tarry, TSSA’s newly-appointed political officer introduces our work to increase members’ political power in the run up to the next election.

In the last week of January, almost 20 years to the day since the hapless John Major and his Transport Secretary John MacGregor published the 1993 Railways Act, the railway unions met with the Association of Train Operating Companies (ATOC) for the very first time. ATOC wanted to discuss our recent pronouncements on fare increases and public subsidy.

Last year TSSA’s Conference passed policy condemning the harassment and discrimination faced by one of the most marginalised communities in Britain and Ireland. Here, London-resident Irish Traveller Marion Mahoney, writes of her experiences along with Gill Brown of the Traveller Law Reform Project.

European Union rules get blamed for everything from the mythical ban on re-using glass jars for homemade jam to preventing the renationalisation of the railways. Labour’s leader in the European Parliament, Glenis Willmott MEP, asks whether EU rules are really a barrier to bringing Britain’s fragmented railway system back under public control.

Millions of Londoners and commuters are totally dependent on the city’s transport system coping with ever-greater demand. Christian Wolmar takes a look at the policies required to keep London on the move.