Swansea rail workers in First Great Western strike

Pickets outside Swansea train station during the First Great Western strike 23 August 2015

Pickets outside Swansea train station during the First Great Western strike 23 August 2015   (Click to enlarge: opens in new window)

There were next to no First Great Western (FGW) trains running out of Swansea train station, when Socialist Party members visited on 23 August to offer our solidarity to rail workers on strike.

Pickets were pleased with support they were getting from train travellers too. Passengers realise that staffing cuts associated with First Great Western’s proposals could have a detrimental effect on safety, security and the quality of service they receive.

FGW proposes to do away with buffet cars, guards on trains and to reduce station staff. The potential consequences in a major incident of having less staff to help passengers are something that doesn’t seem to concern FGW but it does concern the public.

Management seemed to have got the hump, sending out someone to demand pickets and their supporters move from under shelter at the main entrance, into the pouring rain. If FGW doesn’t back down then RMT members have given notice that August bank holiday weekend (28-31 August) will be severely disrupted by three days of action, involving engineering members as well as train staff.

There’s a lot of strike action scheduled in Swansea that weekend. As well as the RMT action, PCS staff in DVLA are due to strike over reducing unsocial hours payments and, in a separate dispute, PCS members employed by National Museums Wales will take their latest action against management proposals to scrap unsocial hours payments altogether.

Swansea Socialist Party members will be out offering solidarity to strikers in all these disputes.

Ronnie Job