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RMT on a "war footing" to threaten a national strike

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Cardiff123

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In response to the fact that many TOCs are refusing to commit to restoring full pre-Covid timetables, and are launching consultations on future timetable changes and possible indefinite service reductions, yesterday RMT announced that they are on a "war footing" and are threatening a nationwide strike.

Here's the story:

https://railnews.co.uk/news/2021/08/27-rmt-threatens-national-industrial-action.html

RMT threatens national industrial action over service cuts​

27th August 2021

THE RMT says it is adopting a 'war-footing' in its 'campaign against a cynical and opportunist wave of post-Covid cuts to jobs and services on Britain's railways'.

The union is predicting that service reductions planned by ScotRail and South Western Railway 'are set to be mirrored across the network'.

Conductors on ScotRail have voted again this week to continue their Sunday strikes in a dispute over pay for rest day working, while train managers on East Midlands Railway are striking on Sundays in August and September as they continue industrial action in their dispute over safety on Class 360 trains. Senior conductors on EMR have also been striking at weekends in a separate dispute over pay and conditions.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch had said: 'RMT believes that the Class 360 method of working that the company has imposed is not safe and that a second safety-critical person, preferably a train manager, should be in each portion of the multi-unit trains.'

EMR said it was 'extremely disappointed', but added: 'We have robust contingency measures in place and will continue to run the vast majority of our advertised timetable on Sunday's throughout the summer but we would encourage customers to check their journey before setting off.'

Meanwhile, the proposed service reductions on ScotRail and SWR have increased the industrial unrest.

Mick Lynch said: 'It is crystal clear that the planned cutbacks on both ScotRail and South Western Railway are just the tip of the iceberg as cynical employers use the cloak of COVID to smuggle through the decimation of jobs and services on Britain's railways.

'Not only do these planned cuts fly in the face of the Government's own statements on future rail usage they also a mockery of their green agenda as they will force more cars onto the road at the expense of environmentally-friendly rail travel.

Here's the key bit:

'RMT will not sit back while this carve up of the rail network is cooked up in company boardrooms. We will be stepping up our campaigning and the union has moved on to an industrial war-footing as we recognise exactly what is at stake.

'If it means national industrial action on the railways to stop this carnage we are more than ready for that.'

Is the RMT bluffing? Can someone please explain to me how running virtually no services at all due to strike action, will encourage people back to the railways to prevent service cuts. Can someone also point out to me an example from history where going on strike to stop service cuts actually worked.
 
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londonteacher

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The RMT do realise that the cuts to the services are from the government?

The RMT it seems are slowly killing of the railway!
 

Robertj21a

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Ha Ha Ha.....

You can always rely on the RMT to provide some entertainment for the rest of us.

Utter buffoons.....

:E
 

Bletchleyite

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Do they not realise that a prolonged national strike would mean more cuts because people would abandon the railway in droves?

I hope the actual staff have the sense to understand this and to vote against the action.
 

Class360/1

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In response to the fact that many TOCs are refusing to commit to restoring full pre-Covid timetables, and are launching consultations on future timetable changes and possible indefinite service reductions, yesterday RMT announced that they are on a "war footing" and are threatening a nationwide strike.

Here's the story:

https://railnews.co.uk/news/2021/08/27-rmt-threatens-national-industrial-action.html



Here's the key bit:



Is the RMT bluffing? Can someone please explain to me how running virtually no services at all due to strike action, will encourage people back to the railways to prevent service cuts. Can someone also point out to me an example from history where going on strike to stop service cuts actually worked.
Oh my not another rmt strike! We should hold an rmt strike bingo/lottery

also the rmt are complaining about revenue and how some things are holding people back to the railways. Do they really think that their strike’s will do that?

Correct answer: no
 

irish_rail

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As a fully paid up Aslef member, I can only say these people do not speak for all rail workers. An awful union who are doing untold damage to the railway. Unfortunately Joe Public will tar all rail workers with the RMT brush.
 

LNW-GW Joint

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So the government guaranteed all railway jobs for the last 18 months of low railway usage and now faces strikes?
Did the RMT not notice what was happening to employment in other sectors, especially transport?
 

py_megapixel

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I said it on the thread about the other dispute over bacteria testing in toilets, but it's true here too: all RMT are going to achieve is giving rail such a bad name that it ultimately dies.
Unions generally aim to improve their industry for their members; this union seems to be on a mission to do the opposite.

For me, as it is, most of my frequent journeys have a competing bus route ready for me to switch to if the train service becomes unreliable. Yes, the railway may be more interesting to me but if it doesn't do a reasonable job of getting me to my destination it does not deserve my custom. I imagine a lot of people both on and off this forum feel the same.
 

tbtc

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Mick Lynch said: '...'Not only do these planned cuts fly in the face of the Government's own statements on future rail usage they also a mockery of their green agenda as they will force more cars onto the road at the expense of environmentally-friendly rail travel"

Presumably he went on to say "and this is why these greedy Fat Cat private organisations should be stripped of their franchises and we can go back to a properly Government controlled railway with everything decided by the state"?

Oh...

You've spent twenty five years arguing for Government control of the railways - you've now got this - and you're angrier than ever?
 

Starmill

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hope the actual staff have the sense to understand this and to vote against the action.
While noting there have been a number of votes in favour of industrial action including strikes since the onset of the pandemic.
 

alangla

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Wonder if Mick Lynch, when making the statement above about the environment, appreciates the irony that during COP26, delegates will have to use diesel buses to get to the conference venue on the Sunday because the electric railway past it has been closed by his union for 9 months.
Also, given the ongoing ScotRail etc disputes, can his members participate in multiple sets of strike action at the same time?
 

Cardiff123

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Who are the RMT trying to appeal to with their ridiculous, OTT, hyperbolic rhetoric? The public? Their membership? Or the militant echo chamber of the leadership?
 

Starmill

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Who are the RMT trying to appeal to with their ridiculous, OTT, hyperbolic rhetoric? The public? Their membership? Or the militant echo chamber of the leadership?
It has been their communications style for a few decades. Nobody seems to know why...
 

Kite159

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If it wasn't for that quote from the boss, I was going to say, is he on holiday and left the task of writing PR reports to one of his minions whom has been living under a rock for the last 18 months?
 

stj

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I went down to my local station yesterday which has around 200 car parking spaces which used to be not enough.
I counted 8 cars! I speak to loads of people for which homeworking is now the norm and wont be going back to the office.The office next to where I work has closed and gone to homeworking.Rail services will have to be cut to meet the new demand.
 

Kite159

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I went down to my local station yesterday which has around 200 car parking spaces which used to be not enough.
I counted 8 cars! I speak to loads of people for which homeworking is now the norm and wont be going back to the office.The office next to where I work has closed and gone to homeworking.Rail services will have to be cut to meet the new demand.

Although it was a Friday before the August bank holiday weekend, so can't really be used for a comparison as in previous years, August has generally been quieter with annual leave.

It's the same with my local station, 200 spaces and at most 30 vehicles parked up during the middle of a weekday, although most in the top car park which isn't covered by the ANPR cameras due to having residential properties near by
 

Dai Corner

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I wonder if their members in Wales, where railway operations are nationalised and there is a Labour Government will vote to strike?
 

irish_rail

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RmT need to save the strikes and live to fight another day.
IF the day comes when the government wants DOO or similar and is going to start sacking people, THEN is the time to strike, and I have no doubt Aslef and the vast majority of drivers in this country will walk out too.
But now is not that time (yet).
 

Bevan Price

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Who are the RMT trying to appeal to with their ridiculous, OTT, hyperbolic rhetoric? The public? Their membership? Or the militant echo chamber of the leadership?
They are trying to do to the rail industry what Arthur Scargill achieved for the coal mining industry. Or that is how it seems to me.
 

Philip

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Service cuts gives an excuse for less on-train staff whose jobs the RMT are there to protect and also inconveniences passengers who had a more frequent service before the pandemic, so I wouldn't be overly critical of the RMT at this point.
 

Mainline421

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Glad to see the RMT taking action, it's clear the government are hoping to sneak through cuts on a large scale under Covid and GBR and if they're to have any impact at all now is the time.
 

Cardiff123

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Glad to see the RMT taking action, it's clear the government are hoping to sneak through cuts on a large scale under Covid and GBR and if they're to have any impact at all now is the time.
So how is striking and crippling large parts of the non-DOO network, going to encourage passengers back to the railway to stop services being cut?
 

Bletchleyite

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Glad to see the RMT taking action, it's clear the government are hoping to sneak through cuts on a large scale under Covid and GBR and if they're to have any impact at all now is the time.

Nobody is "sneaking" anything, it is quite overt and quite necessary. The industry has changed - commuting is dead - and so cuts will be needed to balance the books.

The thing for the Unions to deal with is to ensure voluntary packages are good including early retirement, and that as few compulsory redundancies as possible are carried out, ideally none.

Opposing the cuts is madness - they are needed because the demand profile has changed irrevocably - all day regular interval timetables with lengthening in the peaks will deal with capacity needs now.
 

driverd

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Service cuts gives an excuse for less on-train staff whose jobs the RMT are there to protect and also inconveniences passengers who had a more frequent service before the pandemic, so I wouldn't be overly critical of the RMT at this point.

Which is precisely what will happen if they go out on strike. Look back to what happened at southern to see the end result.

Glad to see the RMT taking action, it's clear the government are hoping to sneak through cuts on a large scale under Covid and GBR and if they're to have any impact at all now is the time.

If this is the government's agenda (which it clearly was, though usage is on the rise at present) it will happen anyway. A union isn't going to be able to stop cuts, all it will do by striking is make them more painful.

As our union rep explained, cuts are coming. You can either be sat at the table and listened to, or stood outside the conference room stamping your feet and banging at the door, being an irritation to the people making the decisions. You tell me who's more likely to be have a meaningful influence.
 

43066

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Nobody is "sneaking" anything, it is quite overt and quite necessary. The industry has changed - commuting is dead - and so cuts will be needed to balance the books.

The thing for the Unions to deal with is to ensure voluntary packages are good including early retirement, and that as few compulsory redundancies as possible are carried out, ideally none.

Opposing the cuts is madness - they are needed because the demand profile has changed irrevocably - all day regular interval timetables with lengthening in the peaks will deal with capacity needs now.

A bit to early to say “commuting is dead”, when it demonstrably isn’t. Let’s see where the industry is in a year or so (or even two years). If passenger numbers even get back to what they were ten years ago there will still be significant overcrowding (at least in my area).

The books are never truly balanced on the railway, either. The industry exists not to make a profit in its own right (which historically most bits of it are pretty poor at doing) but to facilitate other economic activity through transport.


As a fully paid up Aslef member, I can only say these people do not speak for all rail workers. An awful union who are doing untold damage to the railway. Unfortunately Joe Public will tar all rail workers with the RMT brush.

I think you’ll find most people who despise the RMT despise ASLEF too!
 

Blurb

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Oh dear - the World has changed, demand and revenue for rail travel has changed. Like any other business the railway needs to adapt. The RMT should accept this reality and engage with it (and in doing so look after the interests of its members). Thuggish, shouty and provocative statements just alienate everyone, and if the RMT at some time in the future has a valid point on something nobody will be listening.
 

Ostrich

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Have the RMT union even got the finances to mount a national strike? Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't they have to be loaned cash by Unite or similar to keep going during the Southern / SWR actions?

Speaking as a WoE user who has already sat through over a year's periodic RMT disruptions on SWR, followed by Covid, and now aware of the newly-proposed service reductions, I have to be honest - having gone back to using the car for leisure travel, I doubt I'll be using the train again anytime soon, if at all .....
 

Backroom_boy

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An all out strike with the RMT is probably just what this government would like right now to distract from all their self inflicted issues.

And just at the time where any strike will have the least impact on the country; really can't see how the RMT can win this one.

(BTW I assume this will just be TOCs or will it spread to freight?)
 
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