Iain Dalton, Yorkshire Socialist Party
Conductors across the TransPennine Express (TPE) network have now taken five consecutive Sundays of strike action in their dispute about overtime payments.
For the last two years, conductors have had a pay freeze enforced on them, despite working throughout the pandemic. With the gap between what conductors and other grades receive for rest day and Sunday working growing, they have simply asked to a pay increase in order to keep up.
Additionally, conductors earn commission from on-board ticket sales – but these have become much reduced in recent years as larger numbers of tickets are bought online. Northern Rail conductors recently reached agreement for a small 2p per ticket payment for checking such tickets, to offset the reduced income, which TPE conductors are asking their company to also adopt.
TPE, bailed out like other train operating companies during the pandemic, has, despite this, paid out £30 million in dividends to shareholders, and wants to receive permission from the government to pay out a further £33 million.
Showing their approval of shareholders gaining at the expense of workers, the government recently announced plans to extend the franchise of TPE for eight years beyond its current end date in April 2023.
On the picket line in York, strikers thought the recent awarding of Train Operator of the Year to TPE was a joke. One striker commented: “I can’t think of a worse train operator,” while another pointed out they had had cancellations all over the place just the day before, and struggled to organise a replacement service.
The strikers welcomed the RMT union’s plans to coordinate action across all the different Train Operating Companies. As well as fighting for proper pay rises to keep up with the ever-increasing cost of living, central to this action must be bringing the operating franchises into public ownership under workers’ control, rather than extending them.
Messages calling for “A Fair Deal for Conductors” can be sent to [email protected]
