48 Hour Strike Announced on Southern Rail
Back to school week to be disrupted by dispute over role of guards
RMT members demonstrate outside the Department of Transport
Commuters on Southern Rail services face more disruption following the announcement of a strike on the network.
The RMT are to stage a walkout which will disrupt services on 7 and 8 September in a row about guards' roles on new trains.
The network operator Govia has called for the strike to be cancelled and more negotiations about the issue.
Southern passenger services director, Alex Foulds, said: "We've had a summer of travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of people and they are now proposing yet more misery and disruption in the week when people go back to work and back to school."
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "The Govia Thameslink franchise is in meltdown and not fit for purpose. Not content with axing catering services, closing ticket offices and attacking the role of their guards, they now want to threaten 130 station jobs and compromise the safety of both their passengers and staff alike."
The RMT held a ballot of members on the network which they say showed that 70% of members were in favour of strike action and 80% approved industrial action short of a strike.
‘On-board supervisors’ are due to be introduced onto the trains instead of conductors with drivers becoming responsible for the operation of the doors. The union say that a second person needs to be on the train at all times for safety reasons.
August 26, 2016
