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.

RMT/TSSA London Underground Strike Dates

The RMT and TSSA unions have announced a 72 hour strike from 6.30pm Sunday 6 April, until 6.30pm Wednesday 9 April 2008 after voting by five to one and four to one respectively for action.

Widespread tube chaos is expected and many lines will be closed due to no staff.

Both unions have told LUL that its plans for ticket-office closures, de-staffing, lone working, introduction of ‘mobile supervisors’, use of agency and security staff and other disputed policies amount to an unacceptable attack on safety standards and the casualisation of safety-critical work.

RMT votes for Tube strike.

As previously mentioned in an earlier Blog posting the RMT were in dispute with LUL. The RMT have now announced the results of the strike ballot. RMT’s strike ballot saw 1,673 members vote for action with 333 voting against. Members have voted by a margin of five to one for strike action.

TSSA have also voted for strike action and it is rumoured that both strikes will happen on the same day to maximise disruption. However these are only rumours and have not been confirmed.

The unions together represent 7,500 station staff and drivers. Both unions have said safety standards are at risk due to LULs new plans to close 40 ticket offices. They also have concerns about staff working alone and plans to introduce “mobile supervisors” at stations.

The strike dates will be announced at a press conference tomorrow at 11:30am. As soon as we know the dates we will announce them on this blog.

Notwork Blunder - risked Lincoln rail catastrophe.

An apparently serious blunder by a Network Rail manager who worked a signal box during last Saturday’s Lincoln area signallers’ strike could have had catastrophic consequences.

The RMT union has today asked the Railways Inspectorate to investigate an incident at West Holmes box in which track workers and passengers were put at serious risk by an error that could have sent a passenger train on the Newark-Lincoln line through an engineering site at up to 70mph.

A document seen by the union indicates that the time an engineering ‘blockage’ was supposedly given up last Sunday morning (February 24) was entered on a safety-critical authorisation form the night before - more than eleven hours before the time indicated on the form.

The time the blockage is given up is meant to be recorded when it actually takes place, after checking with the person responsible for the safety of the engineering work on the ground, and only then is the line safe to be re-opened to traffic.

If the mistake had not been spotted by the experienced signaller who re-opened the box the following morning, and had the engineering work overrun, the line could have been re-opened to traffic with potentially fatal consequences.

Industrial Action - Just whats going on where. Updated

Owing to all the recent strike news and threats theticketcollector has attempted to get all the strike information from various sources. Updated March 27th 2008

National Railway Strike:
The RMT has threatened to hold a national ballot over plans for Notwork Rail to change its pension plans for the worst.

London Underground:
RMT and TSSA have told London Underground that ticket-office closures, de-staffing, lone working, introduction of ‘mobile supervisors’, use of agency and security staff and other disputed policies amount to ‘an unacceptable attack on safety standards and the casualisation of safety-critical work’.
RMT and TSSA have announced strike action.

National Rail Strike threatened by RMT over pensions.

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union today warned that strike action was inevitable if Network Rail pressed ahead with the imposition of an inferior pension scheme.

Responding to the company’s unilateral announcement that it was to launch a new defined-benefit scheme, RMT general secretary Bob Crow said:

“We are not prepared to tolerate a worsening of pensions, not least after all the money that’s been extracted from the industry since privatisation.

“We have called for further industry-wide discussion, but what we have been given is an attempt to impose an inferior pension scheme without any discussion or agreement.

“This isn’t about widening choice, it’s about undermining the existing final-salary scheme and a cynical attempt to undermine the Railway Pensions Commission before anyone has had a chance to discuss its findings.

“I am in no doubt that if the company persists in imposing a worse pension scheme there will be a national rail strike.”

RMT press release

First Great Western strike suspended

As predicted by this blog on sunday, the FGW strike has been suspended pending further talks with FGW managment.

FGW has agreed not to use managers to drive or work trains as guards.