Rates of Pay and Conditions of Service 2023 - Carlisle Support Services (Northern Trains Revenue and Gateline Contract)

Our Ref: BR1/0001/CSS(NTL)

19^th June 2024

 

Dear Colleagues 

 

Rates of Pay and Conditions of Service 2023 - Carlisle Support Services (Northern Trains Revenue and Gateline Contract)

 

Please see a communication below from Steve Shaw, RMT Regional Organiser (North West, North Wales & Eire Regions):

 

“In the next few days, you should receive a ballot paper through your letter box and you will be asked to vote once again for strike action and action short of strike action. Under the current anti trade union laws, trades union must renew their ballot mandate every six months to comply with legislation. This means you will again have to meet the 50% threshold for you to legally be able to continue taking industrial action. Returning your ballot paper and voting YES to both questions, is the only way we can continue to hold your employer to account for their failure to treat you with the dignity and respect. You deserve a pay rise and to do this it will be necessary to take further industrial action in this dispute over your pay and conditions and the right for the RMT to represent your best interests at the table through collective bargaining. 

 

All RMT members on this contract have been superb in your determination and support for each other throughout this difficult period where you have demonstrated the true meaning of what unity is strength means. Taking strike action is never easy and always the last option, but until such time that Carlisle Support Services can start to treat you with the dignity and respect you deserve as frontline rail workers demanding your employer recognises the RMT, the union of YOUR choice not THEIRS, then we are left with no other option than to continue our fight for justice and equality on this outsourced contract. We are making steady progress in this dispute and since coming so far from when we first launched this campaign for justice and equality nearly five years ago there should now be no turning back in this dispute now until such time Carlisle Support Services invite us to the negotiating table and concede to our demands through a negotiated settlement. 

 

We have witnessed record numbers on our picket lines and demos during this dispute. Something you should all take pride from when continuing to stand up to the hostile and aggressive employer that is Carlisle Support Services and we are causing them considerable reputational damage throughout the rail industry. Politically, publicly and industrially we are making progress and your efforts to change the environment and conditions you are employed under as exploited outsourced workers are not going unnoticed by a much wider audience now from where we first started. Your employer will be sitting back now expecting you not to support the re-ballot so they can continue with their hard-line draconian approach to employment practices. To stop them in their tracks and win the improvements to your terms and conditions that you so thoroughly deserve as frontline core railway workers we must continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with one another once again by delivering another thumping ballot result, which will send a strong message back to your employer that we are here and prepared to fight for as long as it takes in our pursuit of fair pay and conditions. 

 

Ballot papers will start to drop through your letter boxes in the coming days. I would urge you to vote YES to both questions and do not let Carlisle Support Services off the hook in our continued battle for justice and equality for outsourced workers. 

 

Stand together- Strike together- Win together 

 

Steve Shaw

 

RMT Regional Organiser (North West, North Wales & Eire Regions)”

 

I will, of course, keep you fully advised on any further developments.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Michael Lynch

General Secretary