London Midland 48-hour strike “absolutely rock-solid”

BRITAIN’S BIGGEST rail union today hailed an “absolutely rock-solid” 48-hour strike by 100 conductors at three London Midland depots in a long-running dispute over Sunday working.

RMT, whose members at Bletchley, Northampton and Watford began their third wave of strike action just after midnight on Sunday, called on the company to recognise the strength of feeling on the issue and to negotiate a settlement based on voluntary Sunday working.

The union also accused London Midland of misleading passengers after it emerged that the railways inspectorate had not approved a three-day training regime for managers undertaking safety critical duties that normally require three months’ training.

The inspectorate has begun an investigation into a dossier of safety breaches the union believes have occurred on strike days, and it has already told the company that its arrangements needed “strengthening”.

RMT added that passengers travelling on Sunday would have been put at additional risk because trains were travelling over diversionary routes for which even fully competent conductors would have required refreshed knowledge.

“Our members have demonstrated once again how determined they are to see justice done over Sunday working,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said today.

“The company knows it has no shortage of volunteers to work Sundays, yet for some reason it is clinging to the Victorian notion that staff should have no say over working up to 60 hours a week.

“London Midland should be clearing the way towards proper restructuring talks by accepting that compulsory Sundays are not on, and our members have made it clear that the offer put on the table last week simply does not address the basic problem.

“The company has tried to convince the public that giving managers just three days’ training was safe, but now that figleaf is gone I hope that passengers will join us in telling them to stop playing games with people’s safety and negotiate seriously,” Bob Crow said.

Notes to editors: RMT conductors at Bletchley, Northampton and Watford depots began their 48-hour strike at 00:01 on Sunday, April 5.

The conductors have already taken action on March 13 and 16 after voting overwhelmingly for action in January over attempts by the company to pressure staff into working Sundays.

Safety breaches believed to have taken place include a train delayed at Northampton because a retail platform manager doing the conductor’s duties did not know where to insert the key to activate the door controls.

Another reports suggests that a manager on a train departing from Euston gave a dispatcher at Euston a green flag, (safe to proceed), despite the driver’s cab door still being open – indicating that the signal had been given without knowledge that all doors were shut.

Another suggests that a manager in charge of a train from Bletchley gave a ‘ready to start’ signal at Hemel Hempstead while the signal was on red.

The union also understands that stand-in managers involved in incidents have not been tested for drugs or alcohol as normal procedure demands, and that at least one staff member who witnessed a safety breach was asked not to submit a report.