GUARDS’ VICTORY AT SOUTH WEST TRAINS

R MT guards, revenue- protection inspectors and retail staff at ‘One’ railway in north Essex have taken strike action over the dismissal of a guard and the company’s failure to support other members involved in an incident with a fare evader. Guards based at Colchester and Clacton, revenue-protection inspectors based at Colchester and retail members between Chelmsford and Manningtree, took 24-hour action. RMT is demanding the immediate re-instatement of Paul Yarwood, who was sacked after the incident, confirmation that there will be no further disciplinary action connected with it, and a guarantee that the company will fulfil its duty of care towards employees in the future. “It is breathtaking that after our members were left to deal with a violent and abusive fare- evader who refused to stop smoking on a train, assaulted a platform supervisor and threatened a passenger and other staff the company has chosen to turn on its workforce,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. He said that rather than support its employees the company re-defined a fare- dodger who boasted that he has never travelled with a ticket in his adult life as a ‘customer’ and sacked one loyal member of staff and suspended two others. “Railway staff who face the daily prospect of abuse and violence should be able to count on the support of their employers, but this company has totally failed its workforce. “We have told ‘One’ that we expect our member to be re- instated, that we expect no further disciplinary action arising from this incident and that we expect guarantees that the company will in future honour its duty of care to its workforce,” Bob said. RMTnews :: august/september 2007 :: www.rmt.org.uk 6 S outh West Trains has dropped proposals for drivers to open powered doors following a campaign by the union. The company revealed the proposals after winning the10- year franchise on the basis of retaining all guards in a full operational capacity and not imposing a driver-only operation (DOO). Management had claimed that the plan would ‘improve performance and safety’ – but they fooled no-one. The union saw it as a creeping attempt to introduce DOO onto the franchise and transform the guards’ role by stealth. South West Trains’ own safety department contradicted the company over its DOO plans, instructing guards to “stop, open the local door, step out onto the platform, check the train is correctly positioned on the platform. Once this has been done the train doors can be released as necessary”. As a result RMT warned the company that it would ballot members’ for strike action unless guards retained their existing responsibility for door operation. RMT guards had voted to strike at SWT over the same issue in the past – delivering a massive 85 per cent vote for action in 1998 and causing the company to back down then. As a result, SWT withdrew their proposals in a letter which said: “I confirm that the intentions expressed in the original briefing to the Guards Company Council have not been progressed and are withdrawn”. RMT general secretary Bob Crow said that as a result of the solidarity shown there are to be no changes to existing arrangements, there will be a guard on every passenger train and there are no proposals to reduce the guards’ role. • RMT has said that plans by SWT to take disciplinary action against guards who exercise their discretion when dealing with passengers who board trains without tickets was ‘out of the question’. The union is opposed to guards on the front line being put under greater pressure, into potentially confrontational situations and at greater risk of assault. The discretion of the guard must remain paramount for their own safety and because their primary role is the safety- critical duties they undertake as train guards. GUARDS’ VICTORY AT SOUTH WEST TRAINS RMT MEMBERS BACK ACTION AT ‘ONE’ T hree days of strike action by more than 350 members at Silverlink were called off after the company increased its pay offer to 4.6 per cent. RMT guards and retail and revenue staff were due to strike on July 30 and August 13 and 27 after voting by more than seven to one to take action against a sub-inflation 3.6 per cent offer. “Our members demonstrated their strength and unity with a huge vote for action that signalled that they were simply not prepared to accept what amounted to a pay cut,” RMT general secretary Bob Crow said. “That decisive mandate gave our negotiating team exactly what they needed to secure an acceptable no- strings pay offer, and the strike action has therefore been lifted,” he said. RMT WINS IMPROVED PAY OFFER AT SILVERLINK