The TSSA Union has announced that members from 12 train operating companies will be balloted for strike action, with the union says that there is ‘some distance' remaining between them and the Rail Delivery Group in the ongoing dispute.
Ballots will be confirmed next week, with the results due by the end of February. A re-ballot is already taking place at Avanti West Coast.
The TSSA Union and Rail Delivery Group are in talks today, but concerns over lack of offers for management and “inadeguate” offers for other rail works persist.
The ballot will include members from CrossCountry, c2c, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Govia Thameslink Railway, LNER, Northern, Southeastern, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains.
Frank Ward, TSSA Interim General Secretary, said: “This dispute has been unnecessarily prolonged by the government and we are still without an offer for our members in train operating companies.
“While we welcome the resumption of talks with the RDG, the fact of the matter is that no acceptable offer has been made. We have little indication whether an offer of any kind will apply to management and control staff who make up a significant part of the rail workforce and our TSSA membership.
“There is some distance between the negotiating teams. Our members are resolute and determined to use their industrial power to secure job security, an acceptable pay rise and protections to their terms and conditions.
“No one wants a race to the bottom or practices that would make our railways less safe or less accessible for passengers, so we are pressing ahead with these ballots.”
I feel soon the unions won’t need to strike because there will be nothing left to strike for together with interminable Network Rail “Improvement” works which seem even more effective than strikes at driving passengers away can only lead to the end for the railway industry, very sad to see, even more so as I vote Labour.
The rail unions will complete their own “race to the bottom ” as there will be no passengers left soon.Half term school holiday trips maybe gone already.