{"id":5680,"date":"2015-09-14T16:32:20","date_gmt":"2015-09-14T15:32:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=5680"},"modified":"2015-09-15T10:35:53","modified_gmt":"2015-09-15T09:35:53","slug":"lifelines-of-our-communities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=5680","title":{"rendered":"‘Lifelines of our communities’"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Unite EC member Mohammad Taj addressed TUC Congress on transport today (September 14).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite has a long and proud record of representing transport workers and making the case for high quality transport and for public transport.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am a bus worker and I want to speak about bus services,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mohammad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not forget those immortal lines of Margaret Thatcher who said, ‘If you are a young man of 26 and still riding a bus you are a loser,'” he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mohammad has been a bus driver for more than 41 years.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBuses are the most frequently used and the most democratic form of public transport,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mohammad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThey are the lifelines of our communities,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he added.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the Campaign for Better Transport reports that there have been 2,000 bus routes cut since 2010 and nearly 500 services cut in the last year alone.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need more public ownership and accountability,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mohammad. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bPrivatisation and deregulation is not the answer.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was a Labour mayor that changed things for the better in London, Mohammad explained. But under Boris Johnson public transport has been attacked.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Mohammad referred to Sadiq Khan, who won the vote to be London\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour mayoral candidate on Friday.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am sure that the next Labour mayor of London, the son of a bus driver, will change it again,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said.
\nAs a bus worker himself, Mohammad knows firsthand of the disaster privatisation and deregulation has caused in the bus industry.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe need an integrated network of properly regulated bus services run for the benefit of passengers, not for excess profit,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mohammad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite represents 90,000 bus workers who have been in the forefront of trying to repair the damage caused by bus deregulation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unite will be at the forefront of challenging any threats to bus services that may be in the forthcoming Buses Bill, Mohammad noted.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Quality Contracts\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 give local authorities the power to determine service delivery, set affordable fares and stipulate decent terms and conditions for bus workers.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt is shameful that operators are against this,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mohammad.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bA transport policy based on market forces cannot meet the national interest,” he added. “Support the campaign for a national integrated railway under public ownership and support a campaign against cuts to bus services.”<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Unite EC member Mohammad Taj addressed TUC Congress on transport today (September 14).   Unite has a long and proud record of representing transport workers and making the case for high quality transport and for public transport.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bI am a bus worker and I want to speak about bus services,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 said Mohammad.   \u00e2\u20ac\u015bLet\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[392],"wps_subtitle":"EC member Mohammad Taj calls for support of regulated bus network","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5680"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5680"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5680\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5716,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5680\/revisions\/5716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}