A SERIES of strikes will hit cross-Border train services between Edinburgh and London this month, with a 24-hour walkout set to coincide with the end of the Edinburgh Festival.
Conductors, station staff and some drivers on Virgin Trains East Coast (VTEC) will stage three 24-hour strikes later this month in a row over jobs, working conditions and safety.
The 1,800 RMT members will walk out from 3am on August 19, 26 and 29. The last day is Bank Holiday Monday in the rest of the UK, but not Scotland. However, it is also the final day of the capital’s festival, when an exodus of visitors and performers would normally be getting under way.
Read more: Shalom Festival to be staged at Edinburgh Festival Fringe draws protest
There will also be a 48-hour overtime ban during the weekend of Saturday the 27th and Sunday 28th.
The union accused Virgin and Stagecoach, which run the East Coast franchise, of trying to “bulldoze through a package of cash-led measures that would decimate jobs, working conditions and threaten the safety regime that currently ensures a guard on every train”.
It has demanded various guarantees from the operator, including that a conductor remains present on every train, and claimed 200 jobs are under threat.
RMT general secretary Mike Cash said: “Any changes to staff terms and conditions are negotiable matters.
“The company has chosen to treat the negotiations as a game thus far, merely going through the motions of pretending it did not yet know what its plans entailed. To behave like that is to treat the union and its members with contempt.”
Read more: Letters: ScotRail must address west coast staff shortage
Virgin said it had contingency plans in place to enable it to run a full timetable in spite of the industrial action and accused the union of walking out of talks.
The operator insisted its proposals would have no impact on jobs or safety but would “see a single person take responsibility for the customer experience on our trains”.
David Horne, managing director for VTEC, said: “We are already halfway through a complete refresh of our trains with all-new interiors being rolled out. In two years we will have our new Azuma trains coming into service.
“Alongside the trains, we want a modern customer service proposition – one that focuses firmly on the client.
“With our guarantees of no compulsory redundancies, no impact on safety and a full timetable in place during the walkouts, these strikes will cost RMT members pay for no reason. We urge them to rejoin us at the negotiating table.”
It is the latest outbreak of RMT-led industrial action on the railways after train managers on Eurostar launched a four-day walkout in protest over unsocial hours. However, the strike was cancelled late last night to allow for new talks.
It follows long-running strikes by Southern Railway and continuing talks between RMT and ScotRail following a series of walkouts which hit around one in three ScotRail services. Both disputes revolve around driver-only operation, where a driver – not the conductor – opens and closes the doors.
Read more: Train delays are damaging Scotland's reputation as a tourism destination, passengers say
RMT says the practice, which is becoming more common as new electrified trains are introduced, increases the risk of passengers being trapped in doors or falling between the train and platform. However, the Rail Safety and Standards Board said on Thursday that there is “no evidence” to support the union’s safety claims, pointing out that passenger harm has been falling despite a rapid rise in journeys.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here