International rail workers

French lessons

Our monthly Tubeworker editorial meeting on 20 February heard a report from a comrade who’d recently visited France during the mass strike wave, as part of a delegation organised by Workers’ Liberty.

Workers in France have been striking against proposed pension reforms. We heard how strikes are...

Driverless Nightmare

Lest we forget, while we continue our day-to-day battles with management, behind the scenes they continue to prepare to introduce driverless trains.

And in case anyone believes the hype that they are 'safe', read this report of a toddler being separated from his mum on a driverless Metro train in Sydney last week.

Incentivised by a financial squeeze on operating costs while government grants remain available for capital investment, TfL top bosses have their eyes on a future without those pesky drivers. We have heard little of it over the last couple of years, but we can be sure that the Tories will make more and more of an issue of driverless trains (and nicking our Nominee Passes) in the run-up to next year's Mayor and GLA elections.

The daftest thing for us to do would be to hold off on fighting driverless trains until they have been designed, manufactured and delivered. Let the shocking incident in Sydney remind us of the need to fight this now.

Familiar Names in Hong Kong Train Collision

MTR - which has the contract to run Crossrail - has come a-cropper in Hong Kong, as its trial of new signalling systems came off the rails.

Two subway tains collided between Central and Admiralty stations during an early morning test run on Monday before start of traffic. Both drivers were taken to...

Working as a CSA in São Paolo

JB, a worker-militant working on the railway in São Paolo, Brazil, recently visited London, and spoke to a number of radical workers' organisations including Tubeworker and the Angry Workers of the World. He is involved with the Invisíveis collective.

He wrote a document describing his experiences...

They Move New York, We Move London: Support TWU Local 100!

3,000 New York public transport workers demonstrated outside the Metropolitan Transport Authority (MTA) offices on Tuesday 15 November, ahead of contract negotiations between MTA and their union, TWU Local 100.

TWU projected their demands onto the side of the MTA building (the equivalent of us...

A lesson from across the Channel...

We recently reported on a 44% increase in assaults on Tube staff. In January, a CSA at Lancaster Gate was stabbed (see here for more). With this issue at the forefront of our minds, we were pleased to receive this report from comrades working on the railways in Lyon, France. Although these workers...

Solidarity with the São Paulo subway workers' strike!

Subway workers in São Paulo, Brazil, are striking to win a 12% wage increase. Their strike is now into its fifth day.

Strikers and supporters clashed with riot police on Monday 9 June, as Brazil gears up for the start of the World Cup.

Workers in other industries have also struck, facing...

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