Rail workers on the picket line outside Bristol Temple Meads have voiced their concerns and reasoning for taking part in strikes being staged by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union. A group of around 12 workers gathered outside the station holding placards which said "this strike is about safety" and "never cross a picket, your job could be next".
Thousands of trains have been cancelled across the country today causing disruption to journeys nationwide and some motorists hooted in support as they drove past the picket. Ryan, a train manager at Temple Meads who has worked in the industry for eight years, said: "We are currently facing redundancies across the network.
"The government plans to close all ticket offices across the country when 1 in 8 rail tickets is bought in a ticket office, that will leave disabled people, anyone who can't use a smart phone or anyone who struggles with the ticket system, potentially facing fines for having the wrong ticket.
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"We're facing a three year pay freeze, with inflation sitting at 11 per cent. The companies that run the networks have reported massive profits at a time when no one was travelling on the railways. We're not seeing any of that put back into staff or the infrastructure and enough is enough."
In Birmingham this morning, five people boarded a replacement bus service outside Birmingham New Street for the 9.24am service to Bristol Temple Meads. One man, asked for a comment on the strikes as he boarded the coach, while weighed down with a fully-laden camping rucksack, replied: "Half of what I said wouldn’t be fit to print in a newspaper."
However, another man passing the nearby picket line said to striking workers: “Well done everyone, solidarity. Well done."
Speaking to the Press Association news agency, workers on the picket line outside Temple Meads expressed confusion at the Government’s plan to replace railway staff with agency workers to break the strikes. "All I can say is best of luck to them," one of them said.
"In my role as a train guard, it takes six months to be deemed competent, is the plan to take those agency staff and give them that six months training? If they can’t train them up for the required amount of time, it is going to leave us with unsafe railways, where the passengers are at risk, the staff are at risk and the infrastructure is at risk."
They added that the primary role of the guard was to coordinate the movement of the train with the driver, station teams and the signallers. Guards have extensive training on track speeds, platform length, track junctions as well as track and electrical infrastructure so they can alert signallers to obstructions, damage and other hazards, the striking worker explained.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of "spouting nonsense" with plans to allow agency staff to replace striking workers "within months". He told the PA news agency: "Well, I don’t know how bringing in untrained, non-safety critical, inexperienced workers into a dangerous environment like the railway with high-speed trains, there are high voltage distribution systems, are there are rules and regulations that have the power of statute, how that will help anyone, whether they are a passenger or a worker or manager or whatever.
"I don’t see how the use, the deployment, of students or people who have got no work experience that are working for an agency will help anyone to resolve this situation so as usual he’s just spouting nonsense given to him from some policy unit which doesn’t help to resolve the situations which re in front of us."
Speaking earlier today on LBC, Mr Shapps said: "We are going to change the law to ensure there can be much more flexibility, the law which is sometimes referred to as agency is actually more about transferability. That sort of modernisation can be achieved, if we can’t get it by agreement with the unions, by changing the law. And we will change the law in rapid order in the next month or two to ensure that transferable skills are allowed."
