Saturday's Planned Train Strike Called Off
RMT say move is to allow talks to proceed on issue of guards on South Western Railway
RMT members demonstrate outside the Department of Transport
The RMT Union have agreed to suspend industrial action planned for this Saturday (11 August) on the South Western Railway (SWR) network.
They say they are not going to go ahead with the 24-hour strike to allow for further talks over the issue of guards on the trains. They say the decision comes after a ‘flurry of correspondence’ over the past 24 hours between RMT and the company.
However, the union have said that the rest of the scheduled industrial action remains on.
RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said, “RMT has continued to work hard to reach a negotiated settlement in the South Western Railway guards' safety dispute and after a flurry of correspondence with the company this week our Executive has agreed to suspend this weekend’s strike action to allow for further talks on the specific issue of the guard guarantee.
“The rest of our planned action remains on and the union remains committed to negotiating a settlement with SWR in line with other recent agreements with train operators that protects safety, security and access to services.”
SWR say they intend to run a full timetable on Saturday.
Previous talks to resolve the dispute have collapsed in acrimony with both sides blaming the other for their failure.
After the suspended action on Saturday 11 August the RMT has instructed its members no to book on of any shifts on the following days:
Saturday 18 August
Friday 31 August
Saturday 1 September
The union claim that safety is compromised unless there is an absolute guarantee of a guard on all trains. South Western Railway say that they will roster guards on all services but that trains should be allowed to run in the event of one not being available. They argue that there is no evidence of any greater risk with a driver only operated train.
August 9, 2018