Train guards strike threat on East Coast rail line (From York Press)

Train guards strike threat on East Coast rail line

8:54am Thursday 17th December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(7)

UP TO 200 train guards on the East Coast Main Line could go on strike next month, unions have warned.

Allen Heath, a regional organiser for the RMT transport union, claimed train services on the route would be suspended while any walkout took place.

But a spokesperson for the recently-nationalised rail company East Coast said they has not been formally notified of any industrial action and talks with the union were ongoing.

Mr Heath said if members voted in favour of the action, it would last for one or two days, and could be followed by further strikes. He was in the process of putting together a resolution for a ballot for industrial action, which, if it took place, would be likely to happen in about six weeks’ time and there would not be any action during the Christmas period. He said East Coast was installing ticket barriers at all stations on the line apart from York, and claimed this would result in the guards losing income. Guards currently earn commission from tickets they sell, he said.

“Guards won’t be able to sell them because everybody will have a ticket when they get on the train, with the exception of York,” he said.

Mr Heath claimed that, when all the gates had been put up, each guard would lose up to £3,000 in earnings a year and that the RMT had asked East Coast to compensate the guards but the company had not agreed to the request.

“We’ve had meetings, more meetings, and they’ve said ‘no, sorry, that’s tough’,” he said. Speaking about the guards’ appetite for strike action, he said: “The people who have spoken to me are very much up for it. They’re going to be losing over a period of years about £3,000 a year. That’s a lot of money.”

He said he hoped the issue would be resolved before any action went ahead. An East Coast spokesperson said: “We have not been formally notified of any ballot for industrial action concerning our guards. We have had discussions with the RMT over guards’ commission, which reflects how customers now buy their tickets, with fewer tickets being sold on board. We have an ongoing dialogue with our trade union partners and are surprised and disappointed at the threat of industrial action, which is in no one’s interests.”