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RMTnews :: june 2005 4 Open six days a week Mon to Fri - 8am until 6pm, Sat - 9am to 4pm e-mail: info@rmt.org.uk Legal helpline: 0800 587 7516 Seven days a week Members Helpline Freephone 0800 376 3706 M ore than 160 RMT on- board customer hosts at Midland Mainline are to be balloted for strike action in an escalation of the dispute over the safe operation of multiple- unit trains. Around 150 RMT guards have already taken 24-hour strike action four times, and another is planned on July 2, following the company’s refusal to negotiate a settlement. “This dispute is about ensuring that there is a safety- trained guard in each portion of a multiple unit train,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. “It is simply not possible for one guard to cover the whole of a multiple-unit train because there is no access between the units when the train is moving,” he said. Midland Mainline have so far ignored attempts to negotiate on this crucial safety issue despite a work to rule and rest-day and Sunday-working bans, and members have voted by a margin of nearly seven to one to strike. On-board customer hosts, who are not trained in emergency train protection, have made it clear to the union that they feel that their own safety is being compromised. In a multiple-unit train a customer host will often be the only member of staff available in the portion of a train cut off from that covered by a guard. There is no effective means of communication should an incident occur in the unguarded portion of a train, there is no means of self-protection and the customer hosts have no power to terminate a service should something go wrong. Rather than talk, Midland Mainline is further compromising members’ and the public’s safety by bringing in managers from other National Express subsidiaries to operate services on strike days. It is clear that they do not have the necessary route knowledge or familiarity with the Meridian rolling-stock involved, and the union has asked the Health and Safety Executive to intervene as a matter of urgency. MIDLAND MAIN LINE CUSTOMER HOSTS BALLOTED OVER SAFETY RESOLVE: Midland Main Line staff on strike in Sheffield. From left Bev Goodison, Graeme Bunting, Jackie Brown, Paul Glover, Brenda Pearson and Dainne Holmes. Picture: Andrew Partridge