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Apr 26 2022

UK on the verge of ‘biggest rail strike in modern history’

Trades union RMT is warning for what it calls the biggest strike in modern British history. The union plans to ballot its members in the railway sector, asking to back strike action. The ballot, which opens on 26 April and runs until 24 May, could result in labour being withdrawn from fifteen passenger train operating companies in England and Wales, as well as over 40,000 railway workers from Network Rail, the national infrastructure agency.

The RMT union says Network Rail intends to cut at least 2,500 safety-critical maintenance jobs as part of a 2 billion GBP reduction in spending on the network. Meanwhile, staff of train operating companies (TOC) have been subject to pay freezes, threats to jobs and attacks on their terms and conditions.

 

Effect on freight

While the fifteen passenger operators targeted range from South Western Railway to LNER, the operations of freight carriers are potentially compromised if safety critical operational staff withdraw their labour from Network Rail posts. Tim Shoveller, regional director for Network Rail, defended the soon to be disbanded agency’s position. “”We cannot keep relying on government handouts, and so we must work together with train operators and our trade unions to save millions of pounds and deliver a more efficient railway”, he told a BBC interview.

Separate action is also proposed in Scotland, where the majority of passenger operations have just been brought back into public management after the local government exercised a break clause in its franchise contract with Dutch company Abelio. Read more

 

Source: RAILFREIGHT.COM