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Virgin ticketing staff to strike Virgin staff strike is called off
(about 4 hours later)
Ticket office staff at five UK mainline stations are set to walk out during the evening peak period on Friday in a row over the increased use of machines. A planned strike by Virgin Trains booking office staff at five mainline stations has been called off after a legal challenge by the company.
Virgin Trains staff at London Euston, Coventry, Birmingham New Street, Preston and Glasgow will not work between 1640 GMT and 1840 GMT. About 100 union members were to walk out at London Euston, Birmingham New Street, Coventry, Preston and Glasgow during Friday evening's rush hour.
The union said it was protesting at plans to cut back on ticket office window openings. The Transport Salaried Staffs Association said Virgin was planning to close several ticket office windows.
Virgin Trains said it had no intention of doing away with ticket offices. Virgin Trains denied it was planning to reduce ticket office windows or staff.
More than 100 members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association are expected to take part in the strike. Gerry Doherty, of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said: "We are very disappointed that Virgin have left it to the last minute to resort to anti-trade union legislation to challenge the legality of a ballot which saw a 70% majority in favour of strike action."
Union leader Gerry Doherty said if people booked tickets early they should have an uninterrupted journey. Union claims 'bizarre'
"Our quarrel is with Virgin management who are cutting back on the number of windows open to the public and forcing them to use more expensive ticket machines," he said. He said the union did not want to fight the issue in the High Court but instead wanted to negotiate directly with Virgin "on an issue about which our members and the general public feel very strongly".
"If this goes ahead we could end up with 10% fewer booking office staff." The union claimed that Virgin plans to cut back on the number of windows open to the public which would force people to use more expensive ticket machines.
Virgin said it was doing all it could to make sure customers were not inconvenienced by the strike, which it said would highlight the different ways for customers to buy tickets. "If this goes ahead we could end up with 10% fewer booking office staff," he added.
However, Virgin said this was not planned and accused the TSSA of seeking extra payments for members over the installation of new ticket machines.
A Virgin spokesman said: "We find the union's claim that we are planning to cut ticket office windows and staff bizarre because we have no intention of doing that."