The metro mayor of the Liverpool city region, Steve Rotheram, has pledged support for Unite’s ground-breaking campaign for free and safe late night transport to be provided to workers.
The Get Me Home Safely campaign calls for employers to provide safe and free transport home for all workers past 11pm.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:
“Unite’s campaign is gathering momentum with council after council supporting our call for shift workers, often women, who do not have a safe route home to be provided with one.
“The support of Steve Rotheram is an important step to ensuring that businesses and councils in the Liverpool city region take steps to ensure that workers can get home safely late at night.
“Unite will not stop until the impossible choice of staying safe or saving wages is made a thing of the past.”
The Get Me Home Safely campaign brings together hospitality and passenger transport members. As well as organising workers to win safe and free transport home from employers, Unite’s campaign seeks to encourage local authorities to make safe and free transport home for late night workers a requirement for new and extended alcohol licences.
In the Liverpool city region, the launch of the Safer Streets initiative has seen investment in better CCTV at bus stops and a dedicated text message service to report incidents of harassment. Working with unions and management, the region also secured the role of a second safety critical person on all its new £500m publicly owned trains, which are fitted with real-time CCTV images monitored by a dedicated incident room.
Steve Rotheram, mayor of the Liverpool city region, said:
“Whether using public transport or walking home from work at night, too often women in our communities feel unsafe to do simple things that men take for granted. In 2023, it’s beyond belief that this is still an issue – but it is – so we need to act.
“We’re making great progress – but there’s still a lot more work to be done. I’m proud to put my support behind Unite’s Get Me Home Safely campaign and the incredible work it’s doing to ensure everyone feels safer travelling at night.”
The Get Me Home Safely campaign has also been backed by councils in Glasgow, Sheffield, Newcastle, Edinburgh, East Dunbartonshire, North Ayrshire, Falkirk, Dundee, Wigan, Birmingham, Brighton and Plymouth: Workers are already starting to see the benefits of safe and free transport home past the last bus, train or tram.
The mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, has also backed the campaign.
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