RMT to stage Holyrood protest over ongoing ScotRail dispute
Rail union members are to lobby the Scottish Parliament as a dispute over driver-operated trains continues.
Rail union members are to lobby the Scottish Parliament as a dispute over driver-operated trains continues.
The RMT will stage a protest outside Holyrood on Thursday to call on the Scottish Government to pressure ScotRail to reach a settlement.
Talks between the union and ScotRail are ongoing through mediator Acas in an attempt to resolve the dispute before three further planned walkouts by staff.
RMT argues any extension of driver-only operation on trains would undermine passenger safety and staff terms and conditions.
In response, ScotRail says there are no plans for driver-only trains, with a second person scheduled to be on services after the introduction of new trains across the network next year.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "Our members on ScotRail are standing firm and united in the industrial action as they fight to defend the safety-critical role of the guard.
"They are a credit to the trade union movement and we are proud of them.
"With a catalogue of serious safety breaches now emerging due to ScotRail's cavalier attempt to run services with a crew of ill-trained and ill-prepared scab managers, it is now time for the Scottish Government to get off the fence and get involved.
"They need to wake up and start taking responsibility for what is happening on their watch."
Scotrail Managing Director Phil Verster was answering listeners’ calls on Scotland’s Talk In on {{stationName2}} on Sunday and said of the RMT: “They want guarantees that everything will stay the same, that nothing will change and we carry on running the railway the way it is.
“But, you know what? We are investing as a country £1.4 billion in new infrastructure to make these trains run and we, as a franchise holder, are investing £475 million – so this is nearly £2 billion – in the modernisation of the railway and we can’t stand still, we must improve where we are going.
“The way forward here is for people to sit down and talk about the future and not about the pre-conditions which the RMT have set up here.”
“I think our people will start to speak up to their representatives, to their union, and urge them to shift ground and come back to the table and to really talk about improving Scotland’s railway and not insist that we just guarantee that everything says the same, because everything cannot stay the same and we want to improve what we give our customers.”
A ScotRail spokeswoman said: "The RMT rhetoric and language does not match the reality. We will schedule a second member of staff on board our trains.
"Almost 60% of people who travel on trains in Scotland do so safely on a service that has the doors opened and closed by the driver. A statement from the Office of Rail and Road confirmed that this is a safe method of working.
"We have already offered guarantees on pay, job security and terms and conditions for our conductors.
"Talks between ScotRail and RMT commenced at 10am on 27 June and we believe that talks, not strikes, will resolve this dispute."