Train Chaos Threat As Workers Vote For Strike
5:07pm UK, Friday March 19, 2010
Train passengers could face travel chaos over Easter after signal workers voted to hold the first national rail strike in 16 years.
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The Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union stated 54% of its members backed striking, with 77% supporting industrial action short of a strike.
Maintenance staff belonging to the union have already voted to go on strike in protest at 1,500 job losses at Network Rail, which the RMT calls a “reckless gamble” of safety.
Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association have also voted in favour of industrial action.
Both sides in the Network Rail dispute have concurred to hold peace speaks at Acas
next week.
Sky News reporter Paul Harrison said: “I think some of the biggest sets of industrial action on the railways loom very soon in the future.”
Strikes could hit over Easter, he added, as it not yet clear when the action would take place.
Rail passengers could face severe disruption if the strikes go ahead
Network Rail wants to cut jobs and change working practices to grant more maintenance work to be carried out at weekends.
The company states 1,100 workers have already volunteered for redundancy and that the “vast majority” of the cuts will be achieved without the need for compulsory lay-offs.
But the RMT argues the cuts would lead to a major disaster on Britain’s railways.
The union’s leader Bob Crow said: “RMT is in no doubt that the cuts programme drawn up by Network Rail would drag us back to the dark days of Railtrack and would make another Hatfield, Potters Bar or Grayrigg disaster an inevitability.”
The union adds that more than 150 MPs have now signed an early day motion opposing the planned cuts and calling on the Government to intervene.
The RMT’s executive will meet next Thursday to think about its next move, warning that action will be called if there is no progress in the dispute.
Commenting on the latest strike ballot, shadow transport minister Theresa Villiers accused Mr Crow of “yet again trying to drag us back to the 70s and the dying days of the last Labour Government”.
Liberal Democrat transport spokesman Norman Baker said: “There is far too much macho posturing and cheap political point-scoring going on on all sides of these disputes. Enough is enough.
“Executives, unions and politicians need to begin acting like grown-ups and get this sorted before the public declares a plague on all their houses.”
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Submited at Saturday, March 20th, 2010 at 12:00 am on Business by Alina
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