03.10.17
RMT takes aim at May for ‘sabotaging’ deals with TOCs
The RMT has today written to the prime minister accusing the government of “sabotaging” any chance of a deal being made with TOCs in the union’s ongoing dispute.
The union is currently battling with four TOCs, Merseyrail, Northern, Southern and Greater Anglia over the move to driver-only operated (DOO) trains, which it claims will compromise passenger safety on services.
Today also marks the first of two days of strikes this month across all the TOCs in the latest spell of industrial action this year.
The letter, sent to Theresa May and penned by RMT’s general secretary Mick Cash, read: “I am now becoming increasingly alarmed that you are sabotaging deals with the RMT on Southern, Northern and Anglia Trains and also South Western Railway.
“I do not say this lightly as a number of train operating companies are privately indicating to me that that it is the government that are preventing the deals that in normal circumstances they would be able to make with the RMT.
“My concerns that you are sabotaging deals from being made are reinforced by the fact that not long before your became prime minister the Southern dispute was in its infancy and entirely resolvable while three companies, TransPennine Express, East Coast and Great Western all in fact made acceptable proposals that would allow for the introduction of new modern trains, whilst at the same time retaining the guard,” it continued.
“Yet since you became prime minister you have prevented similar offers being made by other rail companies.
“The fact that we can reach agreements with the Scottish and Welsh governments but not your government only reinforces my concern that you are sabotaging deals and in doing so putting anti- union politics before passengers.”
Commenting on his own letter, Cash explained that there had been a “co-ordinated blockade” of the negotiating process since Theresa May became prime minister which was reportedly stopping the RMT reaching a settlement with operators.
“It is also clear that some of the rail companies themselves are frustrated at being used as political pawns and are being given a centralised script to read out to us in meetings,” he continued. “That points to politically motivated sabotage of the normal industrial relations machinery and RMT believes that it is being orchestrated right from the very top.
“The action that is disrupting rail services this morning has been forced upon us by a government which appears to be hell bent on confrontation.
“My call to the prime minister is simply – call off the blockade on talks, end the centralised sabotage of the normal industrial relations process and let us get back into genuine negotiations with the private rail companies that allow us to resolve these disputes.”
RTM has contacted the government for comment.
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