Rail workers' strike will close down network for four days

The walkout was announced last night, the latest stage in a bitter row over jobs and working practices which will bring the worst disruption for 16 years.

Thousands of members of the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) employed by Network Rail will take action from Tuesday April 6, sparing Easter holiday travellers.

The RMT said its 5,000 members working as signallers will strike between 6am and 10am and between 6pm and 10pm from April 6 to 9.

Its 12,000 maintenance workers, and TSSA's 800 members working as supervisors, will stage an all-out strike from 6am on April 6 to 11.59pm on April 9. Rail workers will also ban overtime and rest-day working for the duration of the strike.

The strikes were announced despite talks this week at conciliation service ACAS to try to resolve the dispute over Network Rail's plans to cut 1,500 maintenance jobs and change working practices, allowing more work to be done in the evenings and weekends.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "Despite long hours of talks, we have received nothing concrete from Network Rail that addresses the key issues.

"It remains the case that Network Rail, in a drive to slash 21 per cent from its budget, wants to axe 1,500 maintenance posts, lump maintenance functions on to over-worked signallers, rip up agreements and impose changes that will quite clearly undermine safety across our railways and make another Hatfield, Potters Bar or Grayrigg disaster an inevitability."

TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty said: "The Office of Rail Regulation agrees with us that these changes pose a threat to safety. It is time that Iain Coucher (Network Rail chief executive) started listening to his staff and the rail regulator."

Union officials, who stressed they were still available for talks to head off the action, said the rail network will "effectively be closed down" by the walkouts.

Mr Crow said Network Rail would have to prove to members the job cuts and changes to working practices would not dilute safety, as well as give assurances there would be no compulsory redundancies.

He added: "We don't want to spoil people's Easter holidays, or travel arrangements after Easter, but we have to sort out our members' real concerns.

"This is not about extra money, or wanting better pay and conditions. This is about the safety of the railways."

Mr Doherty stressed his union was not militant and called on Transport Secretary Lord Adonis to intervene.

But Robin Gisby, Network Rail's director of operations and customer services, denied claims passenger safety was at risk.

He said: "Passengers want more trains, starting earlier and running later, with fewer buses and more trains at weekends.

"To achieve this, Network Rail needs to change the way the railway works. We want proper discussions with the unions' leadership about implementing changes. Negotiations, not strikes, are the way forward."

He said the firm had been drawing up contingency plans to deal with any action.

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