UNION representatives who work as conductors for Arriva Trains Northern have been threatened with the sack if they speak out, it was claimed today.

Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT), said conductors acting in a union capacity were being censored by Arriva bosses.

Arriva today did not deny the suggestion, saying the company "had every right" to investigate "ill-informed" information released to the press.

Mr Crow was speaking as a 48-hour conductor strike, held in protest over pay and conditions, entered its second day.

In a leaflet urging the public to continue to support the strikers, he said: "In their blind determination to punish conductors for daring to exercise their democratic right to strike, they banned overtime and rest-day working.

"Now they have threatened to sack union reps who dare to talk to the press.

"It is now about time the company started looking for ways to solve this dispute instead of looking for new ways to penalise our members and the travelling public."

But an Arriva spokeswoman said: "In line with most companies, inquiries from the media are directed to the press office. This ensures that the media receive a timely and accurate response.

"If an employee was giving inaccurate, ill-informed information about the company to the media, the company would have every right to investigate the matter with the employee."

The spokeswoman said the company had received a lot of correspondence from passengers who supported the company's action with regards to the strike.

Updated: 11:40 Saturday, May 04, 2002