Member Article

Newcastle rail depot workers to strike

Workers at Northern Rail’s Heaton depot in Newcastle are set to strike for a week, from this Thursday.

RMT members are taking action over what they say is a dispute over a re-grading exercise which has “failed to recognise the complex and demanding role of this key group of staff and which has ignored the skills and hard work that they bring to the company.”

Northern Rail say the dispute is not of their making and RMT are making unrealistic and unsubstantiated demands.

MT Acting General Secretary Mick Cash said: “Despite a rock solid 48 hour strike in February, and total support for the overtime ban, management refuse to take our members concerns seriously and have left us with no option other than to ratchet up the action with a week-long strike starting this Thursday.

“RMT firmly believes that the company has been disingenuous in their approach to this re-grading process by failing to recognise the multi-skills and the hard work that this group of maintenance depot drivers bring to the Northern Rail operation.

“RMT has submitted evidence which makes it clear that the job is complex and demanding and in fact is becoming more so due to the diverse nature of the work which has been led by changes in the industry. The time has come for the company to stop prevaricating and to acknowledge that Maintenance Depot Drivers should be re-graded accordingly in recognition of their role and responsibilities.

“This dispute has been forced on us by the management’s continuing and stubborn refusal to take the real nature of these jobs into account through the re-grading process and it is now down to them to rectify the situation. RMT remains available for talks.”

Adrian Thompson, HR director for Northern Rail said: “This is not a dispute of our making. The RMT is yet again, making unrealistic and unsubstantiated demands without any reasoning.

“We have offered practical solutions to help resolve this unnecessary dispute but the RMT has flatly dismissed these.

“For our customers, we have a robust contingency plan in place so that there will be no disruption to their normal train service, a service we work hard to deliver for them.

“We would ask the RMT to call off this action and agree to discuss the solutions already offered.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .