INSOURCING VICTORY AT TRANSPENNINE

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: jan/feb 2026 :: RMTnews 8 RMT celebrated a major victory for rail workers after it was confirmed that the outsourced TransPennine Express dispatch contract will be brought back in-house and transferred to Northern Trains. The decision will see RMT members currently employed by Carlisle Support Services at Manchester Piccadilly and Leeds stations TUPE- transferred into direct employment with Northern Trains. The transfer is expected to be completed by May. The union said that the move represented a significant step forward for the national insourcing campaign and the end of years of fragmented employment arrangements for staff carrying out critical frontline duties. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey welcomed it as a superb victory for members, the national campaign to end outsourcing and for common sense on the railway. “Dispatch workers perform a vital safety-critical role, and they should never have been outsourced in the first place. “By bringing these workers back in-house, passengers will benefit from a more stable, properly integrated workforce, while staff gain the security, conditions and a stronger voice that comes with direct employment. “This shows what can be achieved when union’s campaign relentlessly to end the failed outsourcing model,” he said. RMT will continue to campaign to end outsourcing and hold the government to its commitment to undertake the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation. RMT has called for FirstGroup- owned Avanti West Coast to be stripped of its remaining rail contracts and its operations returned to public ownership. The demand follows continued attacks on station and retail grades, with the company refusing to address serious staffing, safety and accessibility concerns. Avanti has failed to fill long- standing station grade vacancies or retain staff on permanent contracts, while pushing through a de-staffing agenda that threatens passenger safety, accessibility and service quality. These include unsafe single staffing of gatelines, ongoing uncertainty around ticket office staffing and opening times, and a sharp increase in disabled passenger assistance duties, placing additional strain on staff and raising clear safety concerns. The union will now step up its campaigning work with Disabled People Against the Cuts and Transport Focus. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that FirstGroup’s poor record running Avanti West Coast was characterised by a business model which put cost-cutting and private profit ahead of safety, accessibility and decent long-term jobs. “Our members are being stretched to breaking point, particularly as demands around disabled passenger assistance continue to rise without the staffing levels needed to do the job safely. “FirstGroup has shown it is not fit to run a railway and Avanti West Coast should be taken out of its hands and returned to public ownership as soon as practically possible,” he said. STRIP FIRSTGROUP OF AVANTI WEST COAST CONTRACT INSOURCING VICTORY AT TRANSPENNINE PROTEST: RMT regional organisers Craig Johnston and Steve Shaw join a public leafleting campaign at Manchester Piccadilly