24.11.17
Union to seek Liverpool metro mayor meeting
The RMT has announced that it is seeking a meeting with Steve Rotherham, the mayor of Liverpool Combined Authority to urge him to intervene in its dispute with Merseyrail.
Ongoing disputes between union members and the operator over pay and driver-only operated (DOO) trains have been causing tensions for over a year.
The RMT was responsible for major strike action earlier this month across five franchises included the Liverpool-based Merseyrail.
Now the union’s general secretary Mick Cash says the RMT is willing to “go the extra mile” by meeting with the metro mayor, who has general powers across the Liverpool City Region.
“We are also prepared to respond positively and constructively to the proposals from MPs that we should examine how agreements we have reached elsewhere can also be applied to Merseyrail to resolve this dispute,” Cash commented.
“I will therefore be writing a further letter to the metro mayor and Liverpool City Region leaders today to seek a meeting to discuss how we can take this forward.”
“It is also important to note that the Welsh Labour Government recently agreed with RMT to keep a guard on all new trains, including metro services. We cannot see any reason why Labour leaders in Liverpool cannot also do the same.”
In September, Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde, the outgoing managing director of Merseyrail, questioned whether the RMT wanted the Liverpool region to succeed after strike threats looked to cause delays and across the network.
The director has recently left his position at Merseyrail and will take up the managing director job at the newly formed West Midlands Trains franchise next month.
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