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Virgin Trains East Coast strikes to be held in August | Virgin Trains East Coast strikes to be held in August |
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Workers on Virgin Trains East Coast are to stage three 24-hour strikes this month, including one on Bank Holiday Monday, the RMT union has said. | Workers on Virgin Trains East Coast are to stage three 24-hour strikes this month, including one on Bank Holiday Monday, the RMT union has said. |
Members will walk out from 03:00 on 19, 26 and 29 August and ban overtime for 48 hours from August 27, in a row over job cuts, work conditions and safety. | |
The union said the dispute involved around 1,800 of its members. | |
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said it would not tolerate Virgin Trains' "cavalier attitude to safety". | |
The union said train guards, station staff and some drivers were set to take part in the walkouts. Depot maintenance workers will not be taking strike action. | |
It said almost 200 jobs are threatened at Virgin Trains East Coast, saying the rail franchise was trying to "bulldoze through a package of cash-led measures that would decimate jobs, working conditions and threaten the safety regime that currently ensures a guard on every train". | |
Mr Cash added: "The company have chosen to treat the negotiations as a game thus far, merely going through the motions of pretending they did not yet know what their plans entailed. | |
"To behave like that is to treat the union and its members with pure contempt." | |
It comes as the first of four separate Eurostar strikes by staff from two unions - including the RMT - began on Friday. It also follows strikes earlier in the week on Southern Railway. |