These are my notes for a speech I made at RMT's AGM in support of a resolution calling on the union to run a national campaign against ticket office cuts and closures. The resolution was passed unanimously.

Two years ago, this AGM passed an emergency resolution against London Underground's attempts to push through a ticket office closure plan. The company wanted to close 40 ticket offices, cut the opening hours of most of the rest, and get rid of 270 jobs.

The good news is that last year, this union defeated that plan. How? By giving out thousands of leaflets to the public; petitioning; piling on political pressure, including with an Early Day Motion; and including it alongside other issues in our ballot for strike action against 'casualisation'. We made it such an issue in the London Mayor election that the incoming Mayor was forced to withdraw the closure plan even though he is a Tory *****.

It was a genuine victory, and we should pat ourselves on the back.

BUT, the employer went away and licked its wounds, and has now come back with a new strategy, a longer-term game plan to attack ticket offices.

• During station refurbishments, the company is physically removing ticket offices eg. at Regent's Park, or reducing the number of windows eg. at Southfields.
• It has tried to slip in new rosters at locations including Waterloo and Acton Town which reduce the number of ticket-selling jobs.
• Its main strategy has been to drive business away from the ticket office window, by:
  • advertising alternative outlets
  • offering freebies for using alternative outlets eg. free iTunes for buying online
  • reducing the number of products you can buy at the window eg. planning to take away the facility to buy annuals, then any season ticket, at the window
  • trialling a £5 minimum for Oyster top-ups at the window - but only at the window - you can still top up for less elsewhere. (This is not just an attack on jobs, but an appalling attack on poorer passengers during a recession.)
  • massive management pressure on ticket sellers to promote other outlets ie. to collaborate in doing themselves out of a job - they have managers standing behind staff with clipboards, threats of discipline, and even posters with speech bubbles telling staff what to say

All this is to prepare for future job cuts.

We must not wait until those future job cuts are announced.

We should fight now - expose what the employers are up to - refuse to go along with their job-busting schemes - link up with passengers to defend our ticket offices.