Train drivers vote for action at Northern Rail


Craig Johnson, RMT Relief Regional Organiser North, spoke to the Socialist

Depot drivers who are in the RMT at Heaton Depot, Newcastle and Neville Hill Depot, Leeds, working for Northern Rail, have voted by a massive majority, for strike action.

This is because of the company’s failure to recognise properly the tasks and skills that they have to perform with the various different types of trains they operate.

We’re demanding a fair grading and pay structure for them. They do a crucial job when it comes to Northern Rail’s operations, shown by the fact that the company have imported a scab army of managers to try and undermine this effective action.

Once again with railway management we see hurried training schemes and the undermining of the safety culture in an attempt to beat the action – it never works but it exposes their tactics.

I’ve heard reports that they are putting these scab managers up in top hotels with no expense spared. So they can find the money for some things.

Northern Rail, which is a shoddy joint venture between Serco (recently exposed in the security tag scandal) and Abellio, the Dutch national railway, makes millions out of the rail privatisation scandal, while not recognising the hard working skills of their staff.

It’s disappointing that it seems the HR department stumbles from one industrial dispute to another and also has a reputation for sacking staff on trumped up charges.