SOUTHERN STEPS UP ATTACKS ON STAFF

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: may 2016 :: RMTnews 4 RMT switched the next strike date for further action involving guards on Govia Thameslink Railways (GTR) Southern after the company stepped up attacks on staff supporting the union campaign over the threat to the role of the guard and the undermining of rail safety. Conductors on Southern took strike action last month against GTR’s plan to extend DOO to routes in Surrey and Sussex. GTR want to move most Conductors to a new ‘On Board Supervisor’ grade, which has no control over the doors, and does not include the safety role of the guard. GTR has taken a threatening and bullying stance by taking the company rail passes and car parking permits off Conductors and their families and threatened to deduct pay. RMT switched the date in response to the threatening and abusive stance the company has towards members using their basic human right to strike. Those threats include setting a deadline of May 20 for staff to sign up to the company plans regardless of the impact on jobs, working conditions and safety. The union also launched a fresh wave of campaigning to build public support for RMT’s fight with Southern over the future of safe staffing levels and safe train operation. RMT has written to thousands of councillors over GTR plans to remove all guards/conductors and introduce Driver Only Operation on nearly all their services through Surrey, Sussex, and into Kent and Hampshire, including the numerous rural routes in these counties. Not only will this see the loss of up to 400 decent rail jobs, if enacted these proposals will be detrimental for both passenger service and safety and create a muggers paradise on these services. Lib Dem councillor and deputy mayor for Havant Faith Ponsonby is the latest local politician to back RMT’s campaign. “I use trains frequently to travel to Gatwick and London, and especially late at night, or in the event of an accident, the guard is a vital person to have on board,” she wrote. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that Southern GTR should be under no illusions that the union would bend to bullying and threats. “We will be out there building on the huge public support we have already mobilised in a campaign that pitches the demands for increasing private profits against safety on our railways. “The company know that they are losing the public battle and have resorted to some of the dirtiest tactics seen in an industrial struggle in Britain in many years. “They will not get away with those attacks on basic human rights. “Southern GTR fleeces its passengers for a fortune in fares for unreliable and overcrowded services and RMT will not allow safety to be the next thing sacrificed in the dash for fatter and fatter profits on this rail franchise. “RMT is now looking to build support from across the trade union movement for this important fight which defines the nature of industrial relations in Britain in 2016,” he said. SOUTHERN STEPS UP ATTACKS ON STAFF Union takes further action over the removal of conductors from trains