Scotrail conductors and ticket examiners continue to strike for pay justice every Sunday, with RMT naming dates until September. They also continue to refuse to work overtime or higher-grade duties.
But with the ballotâs six-month legal mandate expiring then, there is no news of a re-ballot and...
RMT members at Hull Trains will strike every Sunday from 8-29 August, to stop the closure of the company's final salary pension scheme.
The company, which is owned by First Group, claims the closure is "essential", but RMT rightly points to the fact that the scheme is well-funded and has a...
Rail Gourmet workers on the LNER contract have been striking against a culture of management bullying. The strikes follow a 100% vote for action, a clear indication of the strength of feeling and resolve amongst the workforce. There were strong pickets at Edinburgh Waverley, where the workers are...
Read and download it here
After the unions settled their dispute with South Western Railway over driver-only operation, the company has taken advantage of the situation by further attacking workers, proposing to remove the Rail Operator from the dispatch process. The RO will only monitor the PTI at every station other than...
Workers on the Caledonian Sleeper, operated by Serco, are continuing an 11-day strike for improved pay and conditions. Nightly pickets are well supported, and link up with each other via Zoom. We spoke to a striker in Glasgow:
The commencement of talks under the aegis of the "Rail Industry Recovery Group" (RIRG), a body convened by the Department for Transport including Network Rail and the Train Operating Committees, has prompted a somewhat varying set of reports.
The Guardian would have us believe that the talks are...
Guards on East Midlands Railway will strike every Sunday from 27 June to 15 August.
Guards in RMT are resisting the imposition of worse contracts, and previously struck in May.
Click here for our previous coverage of the dispute.
Workers in both RMT and Unite on the Tyne and Wear Metro will strike from 28-30 June and 1-4 July, with an overtime ban commencing from 5 July.
An RMT statement says: "Last year the cash-rich Stadler outfit secured a ÂŁ300 million contract to build 42 new Metro trains, rebuild the Gosforth depot...
Workers on the Caledonian Sleeper will stage an eleven-day strike from 15 June against the company's threat to impose a pay freeze. With the employer already showing scant regard for staff welfare, the refusal to increase pay during these difficult times adds insult to injury. It is little wonder...
The Scotrail dispute is still going strong, with guards not working Sundays or overtime. But management have not even offered a meeting, let alone a retreat from their scrapping of overtime rates.
Scotrailâs social media posts telling passengers we demand a 50% rise in overtime payments are...
Out of every five RMT members, four did not vote in the recent General Secretary election. Why is this, and what can we do about it?
The problem of low turnout is not confined to RMT. The large public-sector union Unison elected a new General Secretary in January with a turnout of just 9.8%, The...
It's great that RMT is developing a strategy for improving track worker safety. RMT has emailed (see below) to tell us to say it is sending a document about improving lineside safety to top safety people at Network Rail, asking for a meeting to discuss it.
Off the Rails thinks it would be great...
Reading the Governmentâs Williams-Shapps Rail Review is like watching someone say theyâre too hot in a jumper and deciding to put on an overcoat. The report slams the inefficient ways the rail industry is organised, especially the ridiculous âdelay attributionâ industry that results from the...
With RMT due to spend the whole year embroiled in national elections, Off The Rails is please to see this move towards discussion of platforms and candidates - a break from the habit of candidates declaring themselves and expecting others to fall in line.
A group of left-wing activists in the...
Background:
Mick Lynch has been elected general secretary of the RMT union. Lynch won 7,605 votes in an election that saw 19.4% of RMT's members vote. The three other...
After a 20 month delay, due to Covid and a change of franchisee, guards on East Midlands Railway will resume their fight against unfair starter contracts and T&C busting rostering with 3 strikes on consecutive Sundays starting on May 16th, the first day of the new timetable.
Reps have paid close...
On 13 April the ASLEF Executive Committee met to hear reports from the Merseyrail Drivers' Company Council and the District 3 Full Time Officer Andy Hourigan.
Merseyrail's pay 'offer' to drivers for 2021 was 0% on pay, and a stipulation that any changes to Terms and Conditions negotiated needed...
Download it here
The Conservative Government is pushing through a new law, 'The Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill', that will restrict our right to protest effectively. It will empower the police to stop 'disruptive' protests, ie. ones that have an impact and get attention. The government is thinking of...
What is going on with pay in our industry? It seems that the TOCs that make up the Rail Delivery Group, under orders from the DfT, are making a standardised pay offer, something like "0% on pay and any changes to Terms and Conditions must be 'self-financing'".This raises at least a couple of...
Scotrail conductors now have five Sundays' action under their belt with one more scheduled. Each as been as solid as as the first, and quality Sunday time has been had by all.
The company has tried a poisonous campaign to portray conductors as harming key workers - apparently ignoring the fact...
The ScotRail conductorsâ strike got off to a cracking start yesterday. Solid action saw every train cancelled other than a few DOO trains in the central belt.
Guards are angry that the company has taken away their enhanced pay rates for rest day working, especially as drivers are still being paid...
The dispute over DOO (driver-only operation) on SWR seems to be drawing to a close as the fire that was present at the start has been extinguished in a prime example of what not to do with an active and angry group of workers.
The dispute started way back in August 2017 when management refused to...
Network Railâs Capital Delivery Eastern has told its staff that up to one third of of jobs are going. So much for âBuild Back Betterâ! Everyone is now worried about what's coming our way.
Capital Delivery Eastern is responsible for many big projects such as the current scheme to remodel the track...
Cross-posted from our friends at Tubeworker:
District line drivers were due to start industrial action this weekend, as the company ploughs ahead with its imposition of ATO (SMA3) without adequate support or training.
But RMT has called off the action after the company threatened to seek a...
A track worker writes ...
Network Rail has circulated a list of aims to 'recover' from the effects of lockdown and Covid 19. We have a big fight coming our way. We will need strong organisation and unity to win it. But although some people will say that means not criticising the union's actions...
RMT has announced it plans to move to a national dispute "footing" with Network Rail, after thousands of potential job cuts were announced, as part of cutbacks that involve halving the frequency of safety-critical maintenance work.
Network Rail workers also face an open-ended pay freeze, as do...
Our printable Off The Rails bulletin urges action to break the pay freeze that companies across the industry are trying to impose, and looks at various issues within Network Rail. Download it here.
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