The Ticket Collector

Guards on East Midland Trains to strike.

Guards part of the RMT union on East Midlands Trains (Previously Midland Mainline) are to go on strike on the first 3 Saturdays in May.

After voting for both strike action and action short of strike, the senior conductors, will not book on for shifts that commence between a minute after midnight and 23:59 on May 3, 10 and 17.

The dispute centres on East Midlands Trains plan to use managers and other grades to guard trains on Sundays and to impose a new grade of senior conductor with inferior conditions, outside existing negotiated structures.

“What started as a simple and easily resolved dispute about Sunday working has been escalated by the company into a total breakdown in industrial relations,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“Using managers and other grades to cover guards’ work amounts to an attack on their safety-critical role, and attempting to impose new conditions without negotiation has escalated matters and undermined our agreed negotiating machinery.

“Not only has the company slapped a ban on RMT reps doing normal union duties, but we now understand that it is planning to ship in managers from other companies to cover guards’ turns, and that also has serious safety implications and can only escalate matters even further.

“The only people competent to operate a safe service on Sundays or any other day of the week are the professional, trained conductors who do it day in, day out.

“The solution to this dispute remains simple, but it involves the company stepping back from the brink and engaging in talks about Sunday running rather than trying to impose,” Bob Crow said.