Second day of rail strikes in Glasgow

NETWORK Rail workers walked out for the second day of strike action from RMT this week.

Scotrail services were severely disrupted again yesterday as many Scots returned to work after the holidays.

Pictures reveal RMT members picketing outside Glasgow Central Station amid the ongoing dispute over pay and conditions.

While the dispute is not involving Scotrail staff, the industrial action has a major impact on the operator’s ability to run services as signal workers, guards, customer service, and station workers are among those walking out.

Gordon Martin, the union’s regional organiser in Scotland, said: “What we’re looking for is cool heads and brave hearts, sit round the table and properly negotiate, not just try and ram through the wish list of the UK Government, because our members will not accept that.”

Speaking on BBC Radio Scotland, he continued: “The men and women we represent are very keen to be back at work serving the public, rather than standing on picket lines fighting for a fair offer.

“We need ministerial involvement, we need decisionmakers to be in the room because we’ve had offers on the table that have then been taken off the table through UK Government intervention.

“We need them to intervene in a positive way. Let’s get this sorted and get people back to work.”

David Simpson, ScotRail service delivery director, said: “It’s really disappointing to see more widespread disruption across the whole rail network at a time when we need to be encouraging more people back to the railway.

“For ScotRail, it’s going to mean that we won’t be able to operate the vast majority of our services between 3 and 7 January, which we know will be really frustrating for our customers.”