Rail strike to go ahead

Rail Union RMT said this morning that talks aimed at settling a dispute on First Great Western over the threat to jobs and safety from the introduction of the new Hitachi Inter-City trains have broken down without agreement and the forty eight hours of strike action across the company starting at 18.30 hours on Wednesday 8th July goes ahead as planned.

There will also be a rally in support of RMT’s members on FGW in their dispute at 17.00 hours Wednesday 8 July at Paddington station.

RMT said that First Great Western were simply playing for time in the talks and were going through the motions rather than tackling the fundamental issues at the heart of the dispute and addressing the union’s key points which are:

•    To keep a safety competent Guard on every train.
•    To keep safety critical station Despatch staff.
•    To keep buffet car facilities on every train.
•    To ensure that the maintenance of new rolling stock remains in-house.
•    No job losses.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT has made every effort to secure a series of very basic assurances from FGW over jobs, services and safety as a result of the introduction of the new Hitachi fleet and they have shown no intention of addressing those issues in the talks today. RMT is angry and disappointed that the company have ignored the massive vote for action by their staff and have instead opted to plough ahead with a series of actions that will decimate jobs, services and safety. As a result of FGW collapsing the talks in this cavalier fashion the action goes ahead as planned.

“It is frankly ludicrous that East Coast, who are introducing the same trains, have given us the assurances we are seeking but FGW have ignored us and are crashing on with the ripping out of buffet cars and the threat to safety-critical station and train staff purely to maximise the profits from new trains bought for them by the British taxpayer.

“RMT will be out at stations this week with a public campaign to expose this shabby and profiteering treatment of both passengers and staff alike by a company that already has one of the worst reputations in the industry for milking the rotten rail privatisation racket for every penny they can. The “Worst Great Western” tag has been wrapped around this outfit by their own passengers and RMT will be building alliances with the services users to exert further pressure to end this outrageous profiteering and corner-cutting that will come at a heavy price in terms of jobs and safety.”