RMT to ballot for industrial action across FGW

[whole diary]

[bobm]

From the Wilts Gazette & Herald

Rail union RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) has confirmed that just a week after First Group secured a multi-million pound, two year roll-over of its Great Western franchise there is to be an industrial action ballot across all grades.
 
For months RMT has been in dispute on a range of issues impacting on First Great Western members, including a disproportionately high number of unfair dismissals and abuse of the disciplinary procedures across the franchise as a means of bullying staff.
 
Other issues include the breakdown in industrial relations for Engineering, Station and Ticket Office grades, casualisation and the continued use of agency staff and a range of associated matters where First Great Western are treating staff abysmally.

As a result of the failure to reach any sort of agreement due to management intransigence, RMT^s executive has taken the decisions to link the combination of issues together and ballot all FGW^▸ (First Great Western) members for industrial action.
 
That ballot is now in preparation and the timetable will be announced in due course, but any industrial action would likely have an impact on services around Wiltshire.
 
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: ^RMT FGW members have had enough of being kicked from pillar to post and management should be under no illusion that unless a satisfactory agreement is reached on all of these issues the union will continue with a campaign of industrial and political action until such time as the collapse in industrial relations is resolved.

^With First securing a highly lucrative extension to their Great Western contract last week there is no excuse for them to blame the failure to reach agreement on the uncertainty over the franchise.
 
^It is also clear as day that they have the money available now to employ adequate numbers of permanent staff and to treat them with dignity and respect in every workplace.
 
^Despite the award of the franchise extension, and despite the best efforts of RMT^s negotiators, there had been a further deterioration of industrial relations between RMT and First Great Western and the stack of issues we have identified amount to a catalogue of contempt that the company is clearly displaying for its most important asset ^ its staff.^
 

[ChrisB]

Read that as Crow saying "we want a piece of the action & more members"

[JayMac]

I'm not sure wanting 'a piece of the action' and wanting 'more members' are genuine reasons to hold a strike ballot.

[bobm]

Response from FGW^▸ (First Great Western) on their website

RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) announcement to ballot FGW members
It is disappointing that RMT is once again playing with their members^ livelihoods by asking them to take strike action when discussions to resolve these issues have not yet run their course through the usual processes. We provided written responses and proposed solutions months ago to many of the issues raised, which are without foundation, and we have yet to receive any reply from the RMT.

Threats such as this risk giving the impression that RMT is more interested in playing political games than having sensible, constructive conversations about resolving these issues for their members and our colleagues. We look forward to hearing whether RMT will respond and take up our open offer to discuss these issues.

[ChrisB]

I'm not sure wanting 'a piece of the action' and wanting 'more members' are genuine reasons to hold a strike ballot.

Quite. And it seems FGW^▸ (First Great Western) agree.

[bobm]

I am somewhat concerned at the tone taken in the original article.

For months RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) has been in dispute on a range of issues impacting on First Great Western members, including a disproportionately high number of unfair dismissals and abuse of the disciplinary procedures across the franchise as a means of bullying staff.
 
Other issues include the breakdown in industrial relations for Engineering, Station and Ticket Office grades, casualisation and the continued use of agency staff and a range of associated matters where First Great Western are treating staff abysmally.

As a result of the failure to reach any sort of agreement due to management intransigence, RMT^s executive has taken the decisions to link the combination of issues together and ballot all FGW^▸ (First Great Western) members for industrial action.

They look like they should be a quote from the RMT but are not presented as such.  They are certainly not unbiased.

[Chris from Nailsea]

They are an almost verbatim quote from the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers) press release:

10 October 2013
Geoff Martin

Rail union RMT has confirmed that just a week after First Group secured a multi-million pound, two year roll-over of its Great Western franchise there is to be an industrial action ballot across all grades.

For months RMT has been in dispute on a range of issues impacting on First Great Western members including:
^         a disproportionately high number of unfair dismissals
^         abuse of the disciplinary procedures across the franchise as a means of bullying staff
^         the breakdown in industrial relations for Engineering, Station & Ticket Office grades
^         casualisation and the continued use of agency staff
^         a range of associated matters where First Great Western are treating staff abysmally
 
As a result of the failure to reach any sort of agreement due to management intransigence, RMT^s executive has taken the decisions to link the combination of issues together and ballot all  FGW^▸ (First Great Western) members for industrial action. That ballot is now in preparation and the timetable will be announced in due course.
 
RMT General Secretary Bob Crow said: ^RMT FGW members have had enough of being kicked from pillar to post and management should be under no illusion that unless a satisfactory agreement is reached on all of these issues the union will continue with a campaign of industrial and political action until such time as the collapse in industrial relations is resolved.
 
^With First securing a highly lucrative extension to their Great Western contract last week there is no excuse for them to blame the failure to reach agreement on the uncertainty over the franchise. It is also clear as day that they have the money available now to employ adequate numbers of permanent staff and to treat them with dignity and respect in every workplace.
 
^Despite the award of the franchise extension, and despite the best efforts of RMT^s negotiators, there had been a further deterioration of industrial relations between RMT and First Great Western and the stack of issues we have identified amount to a catalogue of contempt that the company is clearly displaying for its most important asset ^ its staff.^

[bobm]

Meanwhile cleaners are staging a 24 hour strike today.

From the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page).

Cleaners working on First Great Western trains have gone on strike over wages and zero-hour contracts.

Railway Maritime and Transport (RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)) union members with contractor MITIE began a 24-hour walk-out at 06:00.

They claim to be the operator's lowest-paid workers. An offer of a 2% wage rise, made earlier in the year, was rejected.

MITIE said it had "full contingency plans" and was planning further talks with the RMT.

'Fair share'
 
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said it had been a "long fight" for workplace and pay justice and its union members had "shown guts and determination" throughout.

"Only last week First landed a jackpot rollover with a two-year contract extension on Great Western that will make them and their sub-contractors a fortune," he added.

"Justice says that now is the time for the cleaners out there day and night on First Great Western (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) to get their fair share through a Living Wage, decent sick pay and benefits and an end to the evil of zero hours contracts."

The strike will run until 05:59 on Saturday.

A FGW spokesman said the firm was working with MITIE, as its contractor, to ensure it met its contractual obligations.

The firm operates trains across the Western region, carrying 1.5m passengers every week on 9,000 services and calling at 276 stations.

[SDS]

I for one agree with this industrial action. Yes its a shame that the paying public are going to suffer but normal customer facing staff are getting seriously cheesed off with fgw management.

Putting Customers First hasn't worked and now they use the disciplinary process as a bullying and harassment tool.

FGW^▸ (First Great Western) claim to have provided "written responses and proposed solutions months ago to many of the issues raised" however if you saw the (leaked by fgw) notes from the avoidance of disputes meetings you'd now understand why this has got to a ballot. Staff are being spied upon using covert CCTV^▸ (Closed Circuit Tele Vision) in depots and in stations. (Which im sure is a breach of RIPA but nm) now obviously if your doing your job to the letter and white is white and black is black you have nothing to worry about. But honestly who follows their job to the letter 24/7?

A customer makes a serious accusation against a staff member. That staff member is a union rep at say Bristol tm, they are suspended instantly. But say that member of staff is not a union rep, they are not suspended. Lets go to Newbury, Customer accuses a member of staff (who as it happens was on a rest day when the incident was supposed to have happened) of racial abuse. That member of staff remains on suspension for over 10 months.
Locations have been changed, but the incidents are true.

This is how bad it gets with management who think that because they have a degree in marine biology and they can tell you how your goldfish reproduces or sports management that they can manage a railway.

I for one hope that it doesn't get to full industrial action as at the end of the day the passengers also have a job to do, to get to.

[JayMac]

Chatter across other rail forums by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff would seem to show little appetite for strike action, although there is some talk of action short of a strike. Also there is mention of the 'dispute' being driven by a couple of the more vocal branches where they are trying to make local issues company wide problems.

Hearsay and internet chatter only, but It'll be interesting to see the turnout.

[bobm]

It is a similar story in Royal Mail.  Workers cannot afford to stop work and unions don't have the funds to pay them.  However in Royal Mail you can take out some key workers - ie some long distance artic drivers and have a major effect on the service.

You'd need to take out signallers to have a similar effect on the railways and they are not being balloted.

[Network SouthEast]

If this does go to strike, it's worth pointing out this will have a severe effect across the company. Trains in the West and HST^▸ (High Speed Train) won't be able to run without a guard (as most gaurds are in the RMT^▸ (National Union of Rail, Maritime & Transport Workers)). LTV^▸ (London [and] Thames Valley) services will also be affected through overcrowding (from cancelled HSS^▸ (High Speed Services) trains), and also because there's a sizable minority of RMT drivers based at Paddington.

[JayMac]

As with most other rail strikes though won't there be managers who have the necessary competences to at least provide a skeleton service?

[SDS]

As with most other rail strikes though won't there be managers who have the necessary competences to at least provide a skeleton service?

You wont have enough managers to run a service across the network. You'll need 2 managers who are both trained in the correct rules to run an HST^▸ (High Speed Train), and then you'll need dispatchers who wont refuse to dispatch on grounds of safety (in that Guards Managers tend only to get rushed training). Also not every manager signs every route. You'll also have some drivers who will refuse to drive if they have a Guards Manager on board.
Driver Managers dont get the same amount of intensive training as normal drivers.

Chatter across other rail forums by FGW^▸ (First Great Western) staff would seem to show little appetite for strike action, although there is some talk of action short of a strike. Also there is mention of the 'dispute' being driven by a couple of the more vocal branches where they are trying to make local issues company wide problems.

I the full list of issues (which is around 4 pages A4) cant all be a couple of branches.

I myself today got told off for staying behind in the messroom 20 mins after my shift had finished, and threatened with disciplinary action if I did it again. So clearly I cant change at work now. But what shocked me even more is wtf are managers doing in our messroom at 11pm at night??

[John R]

You may be right SDS Pad.  But the problem people will have is that Bob Crow's usual rantings, and rather 1970's attitude to industrial relations will mean that many will not see it that way.

As an example the fight against Driver Only Operation on parts of the Overground appears positively luddite when a) DOO^▸ (Driver-Only Operation (that is, trains which operate without carrying a guard)) has been an accepted part of suburban railway operation for over 30 years, b) it already is in place on other parts of the Overground and c) is being extended in the Glasgow area without any issues. Not only is it more efficient, and releases staff to perform more effective customer facing duties, it apparently reduces dwell time, which would be beneficial both to journey times and overall line capacity.