Six days of strike action

new South Wales Control Centre

RAIL UNION RMT today confirmed solid support for six days of strike action by a group of signalling staff in the Wales and the Marches Operations area – starting first thing Monday morning – over the imposition of rosters at the new South Wales Control Centre due to open in January 2010.

RMT warned today that managers from other parts of the UK are being brought in at short notice to try and run signaling services with union members reporting that they are receiving five hours of briefing for duties that would normally require a minimum of a month’s full training. RMT have raised the potential safety risks of trying to run rail signalling on such an ad-hoc bas in an effort to break the strike.

The strike action will run from 00.01 hrs on Monday December 14 through to 23.59 hrs on Saturday December 19.

The strike will involve RMT signalling grades members at the following NR signalling locations in the Wales and Marches Operations Area; the new South Wales Control Centre, Newport panel, Vale of Glamorgan (Barry Box, Barry Relief, Aberthaw Box, Cowbridge Road Box), Rhymney Valley (Heath Junction, Ystrad Mynach, Bargoed), Cardiff panel and Port Talbot panel.

RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said:

“Our members are rock solid in their determination to stop the bulldozing through of rosters at the new South Wales Control Centre which we believe are all about saving money and which unilaterally rip up existing agreements.

“This is nothing less than an attempt by management to impose working conditions that will allow them to shove staff around at will and force them to work up to 13 days back to back to cover for vacancies and save Network Rail money. That goes right to the heart of this dispute.

“RMT maintains that the existing 12 hour roster is tried and tested and that the 8 hour roster that Network Rail are trying to impose at the new South Wales Control Centre when it opens in January will have damaging consequences for both staff and the service. Work-life balance arrangements will be wrecked in a drive to make financial cuts.

“Rather than taking risks with safety by drafting in under-trained managers from other parts of the UK in an effort to break this strike it would make much more sense for Network Rail to get back around the table to negotiate a settlement to this dispute.”