Tonight:
4°c
Rail firms seeks 'amicable agreement' to end dispute
Ben Bailey10 Aug 2009
Industrial action by rail workers continued today as a firm said it hoped for an "amicable
agreement" on pay and working conditions.
Members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) who work for Arriva franchise CrossCountry are staging a month-long ban on overtime and non-rostered Sunday working.
The action includes a refusal to clear litter from trains.
Yesterday engineering work and a lack of staff caused disruption to rail services between Cardiff and Nottingham, and Birmingham and Stansted.
Buses replaced trains between the UK's second city and the airport, adding an hour to the normal journey time.
Talks to settle the dispute broke up on Friday and will be reconvened this week.
A spokesman for CrossCountry said: "We met with them on Friday and we had a useful meeting, and we're meeting with them again next Wednesday. We're hopeful that the proposal we put forward could make an amicable agreement and see an end to this."
Holidaymakers and commuters face further travel disruption over the next fortnight with strikes planned on the National Express East Anglia franchise, which includes the Stansted Express.
The RMT and train drivers' union Aslef are in a separate dispute with the franchise, also over pay and conditions.
They staged a 48-hour walkout which ended at midnight on Friday, and if talks planned for next week fail members will strike again on August 13/14 and 20/21.
Unless the deadlock is broken, those taking action will be joined by members of the Transport Salaried Staffs' Association.
Keith Norman, general secretary of Aslef, said: "We can frankly see no solution to this dispute in sight, and it looks as if we'll have to dig in for the long term."
Mr Norman said he was astonished at the "lack of leadership and dearth of compromise" which he claimed had been the hallmark of National Express East Anglia's approach to the dispute.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "Both Arriva CrossCountry and National Express East Anglia think they can force their workers to pay the price for both the recession and mistakes that have been made by the companies at the most senior level.
"RMT members on both franchises have shown that they will not line up to take a kicking from the companies on pay and conditions and that they are prepared to fight back and both disputes will go on for as long as it takes to secure a meaningful, negotiated settlement."
