Franchise threat/ Eurostar strike

RMT has called for the Cross Country rail franchise to be kept intact after the Strategic Rail Authority halted negotiations with the Virgin Rail Group and threatened to terminate the contract. Since July 2002 the franchise has been operated by Virgin on a cost-plus basis and the company had hoped to run the franchise until it was due to end in 2012. Since Virgin took over the franchise in January 1997 it has received £985 million in net public subsidy. The SRA informed Virgin that it reserves the right to terminate the franchise and is expected to make clear its intentions soon. Therefore, the future of Cross Country is uncertain – a matter of considerable concern for RMT and staff. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that the union would campaign to keep Cross Country as a single entity and fight to ensure that members’ job security is protected along with their pensions, travel facilities and other terms and conditions. “Any decision taken on the future of Cross Country that breaks the existing operation into two or more pieces to be handed to existing or new private franchise holders would only further compound the already fragmented nature of passenger services,” he said. Such actions would also be out of step with the government’s aim, outlined in the Future of Rail White Paper, to provide a coherent and effective management structure for the industry. The union said that if the SRA decides to terminate Virgin control it should not re-franchise Cross Country services but operate them directly in the public sector using the success of South Eastern Trains as a template. RMT News – Essential reading for today ’s transport worker RMT is balloting 375 members at Eurostar following the failure of management to deal with outstanding items from the 2003 pay claim including: Terminals pay (rate for the job), lack of travel facilities for non-protected staff, office staff hours of work, office staff pay structure. Around 160 RMT Eurostar members in the company’s customer-service department at Waterloo and Ashford have already taken strike action last month over another “utterly inadequate and simply unacceptable” regrading offer and failure to agree a ‘rate for the job’, despite the company conceding the principle. Since 1993 Eurostar has operated a salary banding system in the terminals. This means that these workers did not have an agreed, defined or negotiated rate of pay and receive different salaries for the same job, on the same shifts, with the same responsibilities. It also meant that customer service staff were paid differences of up to £3,000 for the same duties. Remaining staff to be balloted over similar grievances include the 300 engineering, maintenance and office staff at North Pole International, north London. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said it was disappointing that management had either stopped negotiating or failed to make any progress on outstanding issues. “We have made it clear that the union is prepared to talk, but so far we have still heard absolutely nothing from Eurostar, and they have let it be known that they are not prepared to negotiate, either directly or through the Acas conciliation service,” Bob said. The action on August 28 was well supported at both Ashford and Waterloo. In the afternoon, members marched through the Waterloo Terminal with flags flying and whistles blowing (above). “Management were only able to keep the service going by flouting their own rule book and group standards by using unqualified management staff in Safety Critical roles,” Bob Crow said. 5 Keep Cross Country franchise intact RMT to ballot more Eurostar staff for industrial action SOLID: Eurostar staff on the picket line at Waterloo with Bob Crow