George Arthur and Tony Nuttall were two of up to 800 protestors campaigning from February 2014 to oppose cuts in concessionary travel for pensioners and disabled people in South Yorkshire. Protestors held mass meetings and lobbied local authorities and the South Yorkshire Passenger Transport Authority (SYPTA), and took part in six ‘freedom rides’, travelling on local trains and refusing to pay.
These actions, some of the biggest civil disobedience actions in the UK against the government's austerity spending cuts, forced SYPTA on 8 June to restore unrestricted free travel on all bus and train services for disabled passengers but it only proposed a 50 per cent discount for pensioners. Campaigners therefore continued to fight for free travel for pensioners. At the next freedom ride, on 23 June, the protesters were kettled by a massive police and security staff presence and the two men were arrested.
Mac Urata, ITF inland transport secretary, said: “I congratulate Martin Mayer, secretary of the Sheffield TUC and former ITF road transport section chair, and the local unions for supporting these pensioners and disabled people. This victory shows what we can achieve when we work together and gives us more hope for the future.
“Our congress in August resolved to campaign for quality public transport and stressed the promotion of the ‘riders alliance’. It is important that a group that sprang up like this sustains its campaign as these issues are not confined to their region. I am sure other unions and their communities will be inspired by its success.”
Larry Hanley, international president, Amalgamated Transit Union International, USA, congratulated the campaigners for making “real change in your community” and offered his union’s solidarity in their fight going forward. Tony Sheldon, national secretary of the Transport Workers’ Union of Australia and the current chair of the ITF road transport section, praised them for showing what could be achieved when people stood together to fight for their rights.
