Tyne and Wear Metro

At a press conference in Newcastle on 6 March, rail union RMT general secretary Bob Crow announced that around 250 RMT members employed by Nexus on the Tyne and Wear Metro are to be balloted for strike action.

The union are urging members to vote for this industrial action to fight attacks to jobs, pensions and conditions that are posed by the threat of privatisation.

The government has proposed a £300 million 'reinvigoration project' for the metro. The money is to come from the public purse, but the operation and maintenance of the trains and the management of the stations have been put out to tender.

Bob Crow pointed out that it is "absolute lunacy" to privatise the Metro, which won awards last year for being the best performing rail operator in the UK.

Socialist Party members and others in the Keep the Metro Public Campaign will be fully supporting any action taken by the RMT to defend the Metro against privateers.

Elaine Brunskill