All feminists should support this train strike

[Pitpatwaddlepat]

The train strike today is about the axing of a huge number of customer service and station staff jobs, as well as getting rid of all ticket offices by 2025.
We are already concerned about the safety of women on our streets. Now they are proposing that one of the places where women are most vulnerable will be unstaffed. It's already scary enough travelling after dark in London. Imagine trying to do so with no station staff to call on if you're afraid or unsafe.

This is not to mention that removing station staff and ticket offices will also disproportionately affect other vulnerable groups such as those with learning difficulties, English as a second language, those with physical disabilities etc. People with physical disabilities need a clear point of contact with a staff member on entry to the station to confirm that the train is accessible and request assistance if needed.
People with learning difficulties and those without a strong command of written English may struggle to use an unfamiliar ticket machine without support.

Sorry I didn't realise we were supposed to all agree.

How silly of me.

There is a lot of misinformation about it on news

hugely silly tbh.

Why should they care about your safety if you don't give two shits whether they can provide for their family?

Why should they care about your safety if you don't give two shits whether they can provide for their family?

Tube drivers easily earn at least twice the national average and their whole family gets free travel. I'm not commenting on the merits of the strike, but I'm not worried about their ability to provide for their families.

I agree OP, I feel massively unsafe in tube and train stations at night (I live in London). You have that contact machine, but it would be no good during an assault. Maybe afterwards. I have been deliberately followed through Blackfriars train station and then onto the train by a guy who was an old neighbour of mine whose name I didn't even know, recently out of prison and I assumed totally off his head on drugs and recognised me as I was walking through the station by chance. Just my luck to be there at that time. There was absolutely no staff around, and he kept threatening to abduct me and talking about disgusting things he would like to do and he was on edge, vacillating between anger and sexual innuendo whilst pushing himself against me and forcibly grabbing my hand and rubbing his hands down my thigh. No one but another couple of women and a couple at the far end of the station platform and I couldn't use my phone. I had to talk fast to get him to allow me off the train and had to pretend to act naturally and laugh through the fear.

Had to not get off at my home station, as it is dead at night. I quickly calculated that I would be very vulnerable getting off at my station which is pitch dark and literally has a mirror on the wall in the corner tunnel as you go up the steps, not even a camera.

In the end I got off at the station before, which is directly connected to the high street which is really busy. Full of clubbers coming home etc I knew I could have a greater chance of disappearing. Lied and said I was going to my partners and he was waiting for me at the platform.

There were still no staff at that station although there were quite a few people and a couple months later a girl was abducted outside that same busy station, dragged to the small green nearby and raped.

I have also been taken advantage of on a train packed with Rugby fans, with a guy deliberately rubbing his crotch against me, again with little staff at the end station to even report anything to. I don't know that I would have anyway, because I knew it I couldn't prove it.

Women's safety isn't a priority under any government it seems. I support more staff being present on the railways and stations. And on trains, and busses for that matter.

I support all striking workers.

Same

The OP's post reads to me like someone has sat down and said to themselves "let's try to get all those silly little women to support this by shoe horning in some feminist stuff. They won't know any better

This

Have you ever stood on a railway platform by yourself at night, and had some creepy man maybe drunk, maybe just hanging around for this very purpose start hassling you? Much eaier to do when there are no staff around.

If not, aren't you lucky? Or male.

But ironically a man is actually far more likely to be physically harmed in this situation going by statistics. Sexual predators target women but general thugs are much more common and they generally want to fight with men, especially weaker men who they can beat up.

Also ironically, a thuggish/laddish bloke is actually much more likely to come to your defence than the typical guy in a suit who would usually be too scared to intervene IME.

The few times I've been harassed in public and a man has stepped in to help it's always been a roughish looking type of bloke who's said something like "is he bothering you, love?"

not supporting the strikes is in no way or form "boot licking". Fuck off with your hyperbole.

That’s exactly what it is. Fuck off yourself.

I don't support this strike and don't believe for a moment the strikers are doing this for women.

I've been scared late at night on an unstaffed station platform, and on a train where the male guard locked himself away from the troublemakers.

What @NightmareSlashDelightful said