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Rail unions demand freeze on jobs 'massacre'
Dick Murray28.04.09
Rail union bosses are meeting Geoff Hoon, the transport secretary, today in an escalating dispute over job losses, service cuts and fare rises.
Fares increased by up to 11 per cent in January, adding hundreds of pounds to the price of annual season tickets, and the unions will demand an industry-wide freeze over the cuts in jobs and train services.
Bob Crow, leader of the RMT rail union, warned that the negative forecasts for the Retail Price Index could see train operating companies losing further jobs and services.
More than 2,500 jobs have been cut in the past three months, with rail companies also making trains shorter, closing ticket offices for longer periods and even scrapping dining cars on long-distance routes in an effort to maintain profits during the recession. They have refused to guarantee there will not be compulsory redundancies.
Mr Crow said: "It is critical for the future of the rail industry that the Government intervenes now to stop the jobs massacre and to call to account the private companies who have bled billions of pounds in profit and subsidies out of the British taxpayer."
Gerry Doherty, general secretary of the TSSA transport union, accused the rail companies of "using the recession as an excuse to cut back on services".
Mr Hoon is expected to refuse demands to stop job and service cuts.
Reader views (7)
Most people are not aware that the real rogues in all this is the Government. As each franchise has been re-let, they (the Govt) are trying to make passengers pay a more realistic price for travel, so the Treasury subsidy falls year on year, and the premium payments to the Government rise over the same time span.
That was the theory until the recession. No one ever planned for a recession when taking on a franchise.
Now train companies can't meet agreed financial obligations, the Government will not allow them to re-negotiate franchise terms, and we are left with potential mess when train companies will eventually say "enough is enough" and hand back the keys. South West Trains has said it has problems.
If more than a couple of franchises hand back the keys, then the Government will be in a very difficult mess, as they then have to underwrite everything financially.
Now as readers are reporting, service and standards are falling, staff cuts are being made, unregulated charges such as car park charges are rising, and to make it worse, the train companies have slashed the amount of available off-peak fares to extract the maximum revenue in the downturn.
It's all rather well managed yet again by Labour.
- Tom Watson, London
Like politicians union leaders are exempt from recessions, perks all round !
- Wills, Soton
So Bob Crow's members reap the rewards of years of blackmailing London commuters. The more they make redundant the better. If rail employees want to earn the support of the travelling public they need to dump Crow and learn to start providing a service rather than extracting larger and larger pay rises.
If they want to keep their jobs they should all take a 25% pay cut. If they were not so overpaid and over pensioned the rail companies could employ more staff without the need to put up costs to commuters.
- Ian, London
Why do the rail companies raise fares by 11% when they quote the rpi to there staff as bieng less than 1% and only offer low or no pay rises when inflation is through the roof for everyday things like bread fuel gas etc, and why all the sackings? is it just profiteering on the back of the reccesion? or am i just bieng cynical?
Marianna you are probably one of the first to moan when your service is cut or you cant use your ststion at night due to it being unmanned and feel vulnerable while the local thugs and hoodies use it to deal the filth.
- Brian, Wiltshire
There's no one at my station in the morning, there's no one there at night. The only job cuts that I can see are among the army of ticket inspectors who always get off before we hit the badlands where all those who patently don't have tickets get on.
- Paul, London
I notice that at my local station run by SWT our manned booking office hours have been drastically shortened. What this means is that the ticket vending machine is now out of order on an almost daily basis, and certainly every Monday morning. It is a real pain explaining to the ticket inspectors at Waterloo.
- Paul B, London
Rail unions seem to think they should be exempt from the worldwide recession and have guaranteed well-paid jobs for life. The only thing that really pleases me though is that Buff Hoon is going to have a really bad day 
- Marianne (Uk National And Tax-Payer), SW France
