Angry trade unionists berated candidates as privatisation of the rail industry swept on to the election stage in York.

Fury was vented by a number of rail workers disheartened by bad management, unsafe working practices, pension problems and "the nightmare of working on the railways".

Only three of the candidates addressed the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' meeting last night, with Hugh Bayley's absence creating genuine hostility.

Attendance at the RMT meeting at the Jubilee Hotel, off Leeman Road, was low as a number of members were on night shifts, but those who turned out witnessed a lively debate.

The privatisation of the postal industry was also on the agenda, though a lack of postal workers at the debate kept the railways as the hot topic.

Bill Shaw, Green party candidate, maintained rail was still the safest way to travel. Despite both he and his wife being involved in train crashes, Mr Shaw did not drive and said the railways needed more investment.

Andrew Waller, a passenger accountant with York-based train operator GNER and Liberal Democrat candidate, also spoke of problems with the railways, but stopped short of calling for renationalisation. He said it would cost between £5 billion and £6 billion to bring the network back into public ownership.

Frank Ormston, Socialist Alliance candidate, openly called for the railways, and many other privatised bodies, to be renationalised.

He also spoke of organising the "rank and file workers" to stage protests to prevent "stealth privatisations", and was particularly angry about the current plight of post office workers.

When a staunch unionist in the audience said a general strike would be the only way to bring about change, Mr Ormston did not disagree.

But much of the evening was spent airing the grievances of workers who cited many examples of alleged malpractice within the industry.

Joint organiser of the event, Bill Rawcliffe, who had worked on the railways for 25 years, left the candidates speechless at one point after spouting vitriol about thefts from pensions, mass redundancies and a lack of new jobs.

"What are you going to do about that?" he said.

The secretary of the York & District RMT branch, Mark Russell, declared the meeting a success.

Updated: 14:36 Friday, June 01, 2001