Events | 2010.03.11
Rail maintenance workers vote to strike
• RMT union refuses to rule out Easter national walkout
• Talks continuing over BA cabin crew strike threat
The prospect of a national rail strike over Easter loomed larger this morning after maintenance workers voted in favour of a walkout.
The RMT union refused to rule out a bank holiday strike by thousands of Network Rail staff, and they could be joined by 5,500 signal workers whose ballot result is announced next week.
Meanwhile, a source close to the fraught peace talks between British Airways and the Unite union said informal discussions over averting a cabin crew walkout were continuing, with the possibility that strike dates would not be announced today. A source close to Bassa, Unite\'s cabin crew branch, said it had no wish to disrupt BA passengers.
Bob Crow, the RMT general secretary, left open the option of an Easter national rail walkout this morning and called on Network Rail to hold further talks over changes to working practices. "It could well be that both the signal workers and maintenance workers take action together," he told Sky News.
Network Rail believes it can withstand a maintenance strike for at least a week, with some branch line closures, before services are disrupted by safety measures such as speed restrictions. However, the company admitted this week that a signallers\' strike could bring the busiest sections of the network to a halt because the main signalling centres, which employ around 3,000 people, would be unstaffed.
Crow said the vote, with 77% in favour on a turnout of 65%, reflected concerns over rail safety after Network Rail\'s decision to restructure its maintenance division. The Network Rail proposals include 1,500 redundancies, the majority voluntary.
"RMT members were faced with a stark choice in this ballot. They could either sit back and wait for these cash-led maintenance cuts to lead to another major disaster on Britain\'s railways or they could vote to take action to stop the attack on rail safety. They have overwhelmingly voted to take action," said Crow.
Network Rail, which has overseen a significant increase in rail passenger safety since taking over from Railtrack in 2002, has denied vehemently that the new regime could see a return to the dark days of the Hatfield crash in 2000, in which four people died, and the Potters Bar accident in 2002, which claimed the lives of seven people.
A Network Rail spokesperson said: "The way the railway is maintained and operated needs to change. Work practices that date back to the steam age should no longer have a place on a modern railway.
"We cannot allow the unions to hold this country to ransom. Negotiation is the only way this dispute will be settled, and the sooner we get around the table the better for everyone."
Unite and Bassa officials met to discuss the next steps in the industrial dispute with BA that is close to escalating into a walkout, after a deadline to secure a deal was missed yesterday evening. The general secretary of the TUC, Brendan Barber, is acting as an intermediary in the talks with BA.
The Bassa source said it had "absolutely no wish" to trigger a strike and claimed that the two sides were £10m apart in agreeing on cost-saving proposals. Unite and Bassa have offered a one-off 2.6% pay cut in talks, but BA says the proposals are still "significantly short" of its £60m cost-saving target.
In a direct appeal to Willie Walsh, BA\'s chief executive, the source said: "We are taking this opportunity to ask him to reconsider the formal offer of cuts we have made and to accept the sacrifices that we and our members are willing to make in order to help British Airways to protect on board service levels for its customers, and so prevent industrial action.
"What company in their right mind would refuse the offer of a pay cut from its own staff to protect the health, safety and service offered to its customers? Before ordinary peoples travel plans are unnecessarily inconvenienced we hope that common sense will prevail and that our offer is reconsidered. The deadline for calling industrial action is very close. Mr Walsh should not squander that time."
A BA spokeswoman said the airline remained available for talks. One scenario emerging today could see BA lodge a formal offer to Unite that would allow the union to extend its strike mandate while members consider the proposal. Unite must announce strike dates by Monday under rules set down by the 1992 Trade Union Act.
One key sticking point in the BA proposals is that the airline appears to have accepted the partial repeal of staffing cuts but has not gone far enough to satisfy Unite and Bassa. BA is understood to have offered the return of about 184 cabin crew positions, while Unite is seeking around 700. BA unilaterally cut staffing levels on flights by at least one flight attendant last November, after a voluntary redundancy programme.
For more information, please visit
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/11/rail-strike-easter-ba-talks
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