Militant rail strike to bring bank holiday travel misery
RAIL strikes will hit the main route connecting scotland and england over the May day bank holiday weekend after a militant union ratcheted up its protest over jobs and safety.
in another blow to passengers, the Rail Maritime & Transport union announced it would stage a 48-hour stoppage on virgin east coast – one of Britain’s busiest long-distance lines.
The union said up to 1,000 staff – from caterers to guards and drivers – are expected to walk out on Friday, April 28, and saturday, April 29.
The strike, which threatens services linking edinburgh, london King’s cross, Peterborough, York and newcastle, was yesterday described as ‘completely unnecessary’.
virgin insists it can run a ‘near normal timetable’ by drafting in hundreds of replacement staff.
The RMT described its ‘disgust at the ever increasing contempt being displayed to members’ by the company.
RMT general secretary Mick cash said the ‘service is not fit for purpose and has turned into a chaotic shambles, with untrained staff forced into roles and the whole train crew left to work it out for themselves’.
The dispute centres on virgin introducing a new role of train manager, who assumes the responsibilities of both the train guard and the crew manager. The RMT wants assurances that the position will retain the safety roles and training given to guards. virgin says it has ‘given assurances on each point raised by the union’.
The RMT said it was also striking over the threat to the jobs of ticket office staff, amid plans to sell more using selfservice machines.
The firm, which runs around 144 services a day, has stressed there will be no compulsory redundancies. no staff have been sacked and only 46 have taken voluntary redundancy.
The RMT has also protested against virgin’s refusal to rule out driver-only trains – even though it does not run any and has no plans to do so.
Rail minister Paul Maynard said: ‘We are incredibly disappointed the RMT has called this completely unnecessary strike. virgin’s changes are designed to improve journeys for passengers and there will be no impact on safety.’
virgin east coast managing director david horne said: ‘We have worked hard to ensure there are comprehensive contingency plans in place... our timetable will be almost completely unaffected during this walk-out, as well as during any subsequent strikes.
‘The changes we have made are part of the customer-centric revolution that’s under way.
‘With our guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies, no impact on safety and a near normal timetable during the walk-outs, this pointless strike will cost RMT members pay for no reason.
‘We urge the union to rejoin us for further discussions.’
‘Completely unnecessary’
‘Pointless action by RMT’