BREAKING THE COLOUR BAR

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: september 2016 :: RMTnews 15 On August 15 1966 the colour bar at Euston station and St Pancras goods station was defeated when Asquith Xavier, the West Indian guard initially refused a job, was finally allowed to start work. British Railways had announced that after negotiations with local leaders of the National Union of Railwaymen (NUR) that no grade would in future be closed on racial grounds anywhere in the London division. Black workers had been barred from taking jobs as guards and porters at Euston Station and St. Pancras while Irish workers at Paddington were restricted to labouring roles in the goods yard and similar restrictions applied at other stations. Asquith Xavier was 46 and had come to Britain from Dominica, the largest of the Windward Isles in the eastern Caribbean. He had started work for British Railways in 1956 as a BREAKING THE COLOUR BAR On the 50th anniversary of the union defeating the colour bar at Euston station, EC member Eddie Dempsey tells the story TOGETHER: Former RMT president Tony Donaghey with Maria and Robertson Xavier at the Euston station ceremony last month. continued overleaf