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East Ham Branch Demands Action Against Violence
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Following a recent spike in violent crimes on trains and stations at the East End of the District and Hammersmith &City Lines, East Ham Branch called an emergency meeting, where we passed the following resolution: 

"This Branch is concerned by the rise in violent crime on our network. In the space of three days, there has been a shooting and two stabbings on trains within our Branch area, and a further knife attack outside one of our stations. In all of these incidents, our members acted with bravery and professionalism, but this should not be a normal part of our jobs. Unfortunately, these types of crimes are becoming more common, putting our members at unacceptable risk. We call on the General Secretary to urgently write to the Mayor of London and London Underground to seek assurances that adequate measures will be put in place to protect the safety of our members and passengers. Furthermore, we instruct the NEC to ballot all staff on the District East Cover Group for action short of strike, which will be for members to work from within a place of safety when lone-working and not to detrain or attend incidents on trains on their own. We instruct the NEC to also ballot our members at Upminster and Barking trains depots for action short of strike, which will be to not attend to any incidents on trains without assistance from another member of staff If our concerns are not addressed to our satisfaction in a timely manner, then we instruct a ballot for strike action for station staff on District East Group and of trains staff at Barking and Upminster" 

We believe that by balloting for action short of strike, our members will be protected if they refuse to attend to an incident on their own. It reaffirms the importance of fully staffed stations and trains and the dangers of lone working. Our resolution was discussed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) and the following decision was made: 

"That we note the resolution from our East Ham Branch regarding the unprecedented levels of violence and abuse our members are being subjected to which are evident in the alarming statistics presented widely in the media. We instruct the General Secretary to urgently write to the London Mayor and London Underground to seek assurances that measures will be promptly put in place to adequately protect the safety of our members and the travelling public, failing which a dispute will exist and will be prosecuted by this union with the company. Further, we instruct the General Secretary to arrange a meeting of East Ham Branch Stations & Trains H&S reps, Branch Officers, Stations Safety Council Reps, Senior Assistant General Secretary, the Lead Officer (if available) and members of the NEC in attendance."

We look forward to attending this meeting and making our case for the need to ballot our members and take necessary action to protect their safety