South Western Railway workers are set to go on strike for the majority of December, it has been announced.
Mick Cash, the RMT General Secretary said;
‘Our members have been left with no choice but to call a further 27 days of strike action on South Western Railway.
‘At the last meeting we held with SWR principles in agreements were made in good faith with the company’s negotiating team and we now feel hugely let down again. As long as the company continues to refuse to give assurances on the future operational role of the guard we will remain in dispute.
‘I want to congratulate our members on their continued resolve in their fight for safety and the role of the guard on SWR. It is wholly down to the management side that the core issue of the safety critical competencies and the role of the guard has not been agreed.
‘The union remains available for talks.’
The proposed strike action is expected to cause travel chaos, especially with it taking place during the Christmas period.
According to the union, the strike will take place;
- from midnight on December 2 until 23:59 on December 11
- from midnight on December 13 until 23:59 on Christmas Eve (December 24)
- from midnight on December 27 until 23:59 on January 1 2020
Workers will return to the railways on the day of the general election (December 12), and will not strike on Christmas Day or Boxing Day, though no services are expected to run on these two days.
Some further disruption is also expected over the Christmas period due to 386 engineering works projects by Network Rail.
