25 September 2017
RMT Press Office:
Preparations well under way for strike action in four separate disputes over rail safety.
RAIL UNION RMT said that preparations are well under way for strike action in four separate disputes over the threat to guards and safety as private train operators press ahead with plans to extend Driver Only Operation - putting private profits before public safety.
The strike action will take place on Tuesday 3rd October and Thursday 5th October in disputes on Southern, Northern, Merseyrail and Greater Anglia. The balloting process is also underway in a further dispute on South Western Railway.
Pickets will be out in force in all of the disputes and will be taking the message to the public that the axing of the guards is part of a co-ordinated strategy driven by the Government as they push for a faceless railway dominated by a lethal combination of staffing cuts and private profiteering.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said:
"These strikes are about safety. They are about putting the safety and security of the travelling public before the profits of private companies, profits that in the most part are shipped overseas to subsidise transport services in Europe and China. That is a national scandal.
"It is disgraceful that we have been unable to get serious and meaningful talks going in any of these five disputes and that points clearly to the dead-hand of the Government driving the faceless railway policy on purely ideological grounds and demanding that their contractors fall in line.
"RMT will not stand back while the guards, front-line staff when it comes to safety, security and access, are thrown off Britain's trains for political and financial reasons."
Ends
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Tagged with: southern, southern rail, gtr, northern, northern rail, arriva rail north, merseyrail, greater anglia, abellio, doo, dco, driver only operation, guards, conductors
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