HOLYROOD SAFER TRAINS PROTEST

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2016 :: RMTnews 4 R MT members protested outside the Scottish Parliament earlier this month as part of its ongoing Safer Scottish Trains campaign. The key demands of the Campaign are: • Fully accessible – for passengers with disabilities. • Staffed by safety qualified, operationally-trained guards. • For passenger safety and the safe despatch of trains – guards should control the train doors – making sure trains are safe to start – drivers should concentrate on driving the train. • An urgent review of safety and service quality of existing Driver-Only Operated trains. • No cuts to infrastructure, track workers or rail operation staff. • Maintain and expand station staffing – we need to make sure stations are welcoming, staffed and safe. RMT general secretary Mick Cash called for a guard on every train who is fully safety qualified and operationally trained. That is the only way to guarantee a safe service. “RMT is calling on the Scottish government to launch an urgent review of safety and service quality on all Scottish trains, including DOO services on the network.” RMT is asking MSPs to sign Parliamentary Motion S5M- 01161 in support of the Safer Scottish Trains campaign. A ballot for industrial action is taking place at Freightliner Heavy Haul, one of the largest freight companies in the country, in a dispute over pay. Groundstaff, shift managers, clerical and supervisory staff are all being balloted are the company to offer a pay increase. The company then offered a 35-hour week offered with no pay increase and funded by cuts in terms and conditions and not within the whole of the bargaining unit, an offer that was rejected by nine to one in a referendum. RMT general secretary Mick Cash said that it was clear from the company accounts that despite the fact that there has been a downturn in the use of coal that the company was still showing healthy reserves and profits. “A pay rise to keep pace with the cost of living would be a drop in the ocean compared to the numbers on the Freightliner Heavy Haul balance sheet. “The union also notes that Directors’ pay has shot up by nearly 30 per cent over a year showing that it is only the front-line workforce being expected to take the hit. “RMT is aware that the company are also putting safety at risk by training scab managers - production managers and movement inspectors - on a very short course in shunting compressing a normal 5 week course down to 3 days in an effort to break any future action. “The union is calling for a fair pay increase that stops our members taking a hit on their standard of living. “It is clear that a reasonable increase is affordable and that is what our members are fighting for,” he said. HOLYROOD SAFER TRAINS PROTEST FREIGHTLINER HEAVY HAUL BALLOT OVER PAY