Hull Trains drivers to strike over sacking of colleague
ASLEF has announced a series of strikes beginning next month
Drivers at Hull Trains have announced they're going on strike.
A series of walkouts will be staged from next month in response to a dispute about the sacking of a driver.
ASLEF claims they were dismissed after raising concerns about safety and fatigue.
We've approached Hull Trains for a response to the announcement.
ASLEF statement
Drivers at Hull Trains - an open access operator owned by FirstGroup, the rail and bus giant which also owns Avanti West Coast, GWR, Lumo, and London Tramlink - will strike on each Friday from 7th March until 25th April and each Saturday from 8th March until 26th April after the company unfairly sacked a train driver who raised a safety concern and has done nothing wrong.
ASLEF has 100 per cent membership at Hull Trains, and drivers there voted overwhelmingly to take action in support of their colleague.
Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary, said: ‘The company’s failure to act responsibly has impacts not just for rail workers and passengers at Hull Trains but right across the wider rail industry.
‘We have a culture on the railway designed to keep everyone safe. Anyone who works on the railway should be able to report a safety concern without fearing they will be penalised, punished, or lose their livelihood.’
Nigel Roebuck, ASLEF’s full-time organiser in the north-east of England, and our lead officer with Hull Trains, said: ‘The company has got this completely wrong. It has ridden roughshod over the rule book, and all our agreements, and needs now to have a sensible rethink and do the right thing.’