RMT CALLS FOR LONG-TERM BUS FUNDING

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: march 2022 :: RMTnews 10 R MT is opposing Wabtec Doncaster from making 80 jobs redundant and insist staff re-apply for their jobs on inferior terms and conditions.   RMT members in Doncaster have negotiated for the last 12 months to try and find a solution to the financial problems faced by the company. However, Wabtec bosses have shown a complete disregard for serious talks and have now informed the union they are implementing fire and rehire. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that Wabtec had behaved disgracefully in negotiations and wanted members to pay for the company's financial problems by sacrificing their terms and conditions.  “Staff at the company have rejected new working arrangements repeatedly and now the move to fire workers and re-hire them on worse contracts than before, is a kick in the teeth which will not go unanswered.  “Wabtec Doncaster has a proud history, where predecessors built the Flying Scotsman and Mallard locomotives.  “This management are doing a disservice to the current workforce and soiling its past reputation by wanting to throw 80 skilled workers on the scrap heap. RMT is open to talks and will not rule out an industrial response,” he said. T he government's extension of local transport Covid-19 funding until October was not enough and the union called for a long-term expansion of bus services. Since the beginning of the pandemic, the government has provided financial support to the bus sectors, in England outside London to ensure services kept running to enable access to jobs, education and healthcare. In the recovery period, the latest packages, the £226.5 million Bus Recovery Grant (BRG) which had been due to end in April have supported the sector following the re- opening of the economy and the lifting of social distancing guidelines. A further £29 million uplift has been provided to the BRG, to mitigate the impact of Omicron. RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the Department of Transport’s extension of local transport Covid-19 funding until October 2022 was welcome as numerous bus operators were warning that services face the axe from April. As a result, it must be a condition of this funding that all bus services and jobs are protected, and any cuts already being considered must be withdrawn. “Of course, this announcement does not give local authorities the certainty over long-term funding for local bus services that they desperately need. “If the government is serious about levelling up and delivering improvements to bus services, it must as a matter of urgency, provide local authorities with ring- fenced, long-term funding, to enable them to protect and expand their local bus services. “The government must also put passengers before profit and create a publicly controlled and owned bus service, including reversing the nonsensical ban on new municipal bus companies to enable local authorities to directly deliver the bus services their communities require,” he said. NO FIRE AND RE-HIRE AT WABTEC DONCASTER RMT CALLS FOR LONG- TERM BUS FUNDING