Gordon Brown’s problems increased yesterday with the news that rail workers are to take four days of strike action immediately after Easter in a bitter row over jobs and working practices, threatening the worst disruption for 16 years.
Thousands of members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) employed by Network Rail will take action from Tuesday April 6, sparing Easter holiday travellers.
The RMT said its 5,000 members working as signallers will strike between 6am and 10am and between 6pm and 10pm on April 6,7,8 and 9.
The union’s 12,000 NR maintenance workers, and TSSA’s 800 members working as supervisors, will stage an all-out strike from 6am on April 6 to 11.59pm on April 9.
Rail workers will also ban overtime and rest-day working for the duration of the strike.
Commenting on the announcement Liberal Democrat Shadow Transport Minister, Jenny Randerson said:
“This is disastrous news for the travelling public. I would urge the Unions and Network Rail to get back to ACAS as soon as possible to do anything they can to avert this strike.
“This action is likely to be ongoing as the election is called and therefore is likely to become a big issue.
“I think the Unions are likely to lose public sympathy by this action. Essentially they will be cancelling services for an entire working week and they have little hope of coming out of this favourably unless they win the support of the public. This is not the way to do that.”
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