Northern bosses find strike action helpful, claims mayor
GREATER Manchester mayor Andy Burnham has claimed Northern Rail bosses find weekend cancellations ‘helpful’ to prepare for the week ahead – after passengers endured a 44th day of strike action by staff.
Not only have passengers been struggling with massively reduced services on Saturdays as a result of the ongoing walk-outs over the role of guards, but rules around rest day working and under-staffing have been hitting Sunday routes too.
Northern, who say Sunday disruption has been exacerbated by engineering works on the network, have in press statements called on the RMT union to suspend strike action and accept an independent ACAS inquiry.
David Brown, managing director at Northern, has also insisted that a second person in addition to the driver would be retained on Northern services for ‘customer service, including accessibility, safety, security, ticketing and information’ – meaning there was ‘no reason’ for strike action.
They have also insisted they are working to resolve Sunday issues.
But at a public transport meeting, Mr Burnham controversially claimed that it was in fact ‘helpful’ for Northern to have weekend cancellations.
On Sunday cancellations – which Northern has said in the past are caused partially by an ongoing dispute over working hours combined with engineering works – Mr Burnham added: “It’s in the gift of the operator to solve it.
“But I think Northern finds it helpful, it gives the operator slack at the weekends to help them get ready for Monday to Friday.”
He said it was ‘very, very frustrating’ at a time when operators should be rebuilding trust in the railways.
Mr Burnham also expressed strong views about the ongoing dispute between RMT and Northern over the role of guards on trains, with staff due to walk out every Saturday this month.
“I don’t see how in this moment in time taking guards off trains is going to bring people back to using trains.’’
Mick Cash of the RMT said: “RMT continues to make every effort to get serious and meaningful talks going with Northern but the company prefers to ignore the safety concerns of their staff and the public alike in a show of complete and utter contempt
Northern Rail said David Brown met the mayor last Thursday hours after the public meeting to update him on the RMT strike, adding: “It’s not in our interest to cancel services on a Sunday and it makes Monday services more difficult to manage ensuring our fleet are in the right locations.”