THE FIRST of three
24-hour strikes by more than 130 East Midlands Trains senior conductors began at a minute after midnight on Saturday 7th June after talks at conciliation service
Acas failed to resolve a breakdown in industrial relations with the company.
A further two strikes by
RMT EMT Connect senior conductors at Boston, Lincoln, Norwich and Nottingham
are also scheduled for the following two Saturdays, June 14 and 21.
The dispute centres on
the company’s plan to use managers and other grades to guard trains on Sundays
and to impose a new grade of senior conductor with inferior conditions, outside
existing negotiated structures.
"East Midlands
Trains has managed to transform a simple dispute about Sunday working into a
complete breakdown in industrial relations and has wound things up to the point
where there is no alternative to strike action," RMT general secretary Bob
Crow said today.
"The company now
has the bizarre position that it is prepared to talk but is not prepared to
change its position, and it is still refusing to release RMT reps to carry out
their normal duties.
"We suspended three
days of strike action in May in good faith to attend talks at Acas, but the
company cynically used that time to put more managers through hasty and
inadequate training in order to do our members’ work.
"When the dispute
is largely about the use of managers to do conductors’ jobs, that will only
serve to anger our members even more.
"There are serious
safety issues involved in putting hastily trained managers into safety critical
work, and when EMT is already under scrutiny for running overcrowded trains, it
is clear that the company has the same contempt for its passengers as it has
for its staff.
"If the company really wants to settle this
dispute it must enter into meaningful talks," Bob Crow said.
