GMB members across all sections of the Nottingham Tram Service took strike action on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September in their fight for a 4.1% wage increase.
As we go to press, two more days of strikes are planned for Friday 2 and Saturday 3 October.
The Tram System is owned by Nottingham City Council (with PFI costs) and run by Tramlink, a private sector consortium with the concession of 22.5 years until 2034.
The strike coincides with Nottingham’s Annual Goose Fair that usually attracts around half a million people and which is sited on the Forest Recreation Ground where there is a tram stop!
The strike was solid with picketing from 5am until 6pm. On the Saturday, around eighty members picketed – pretty much the full shift.
The GMB is strongly organised on the trams, with around 90% membership density.
The last strike in 2024, again at the time of Goose Fair, was settled after one day of strike.
The employer has offered 3.3% (with 7% for the lowest paid to avoid chasing the legal minimum wage) and is presenting an intransigent face.
There’s a feeling that behind the employer’s current intransigence is a bigger agenda – thinking of the future and the end of the contract in 2034 and the millions of pounds associated with returning the network to the council in the condition it was in when the concession commenced.
Solidarity with the GMB!
Nottingham Socialist Party members
