New year strikes for rail workers

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Railway signalling workers who took six days of strike action in the run-up to Christmas are expected to walk out again in the new year.

Hundreds of Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members based in south Wales and the Marches are expected to go on strike from 4 to 9 January.

It is in protest at the "imposition" of rosters at a control centre due to open in Cardiff in January.

Network Rail insisted passengers would not be inconvenienced.

The union is also banning overtime as part of the action and announced it would be balloting more signal workers in south Wales for strikes, escalating the dispute.

It comes after signalling workers from areas including Cardiff, Newport, Port Talbot, Vale of Glamorgan and the Rhymney valley walked out between 14 and 19 December.

It's about cutting corners and demanding that staff are at management's beck and call regardless of the impact on home lives Bob Crow, RMT union

General secretary Bob Crow said: "After six days of rock-solid strike action, which saw managers drafted in from England with a few hours training to run the signalling with serious consequences for services and safety, RMT members are even more determined now to stop the ripping up of agreements and the imposition of new rosters that would wreck their work/life balance.

"This dispute is all about money. It's about cutting corners and demanding that staff are at management's beck and call regardless of the impact on home lives.

"Senior Network Rail bosses have refused point blank to negotiate a settlement to this dispute."

But Network Rail said its plan to hold talks with to the union on 30 December had been broken off by the RMT.

It said it had "tried and tested contingency plans", which were brought in during the previous strike.

Limiting passenger disruption remains our top priority and we are confident to be able to achieve that with our robust contingency plan Chris Rayner, Network Rail

The company has extra staff who can step in to ensure a full service, it added.

Chris Rayner, route director for Network Rail, said: "Despite our best efforts to resolve this dispute, we are bitterly disappointed that RMT do not appear to want these discussions to happen with the latest strike action," he said.

"We urge RMT to suspend this latest strike to come back to the table so that we can get this matter sorted as quickly as possible.

"Limiting passenger disruption remains our top priority and we are confident to be able to achieve that with our robust contingency plan.

"There will be full staff strength with competent and trained signallers stepping into the breach, so that passengers will remain unaffected by this futile strike action."

The action is in response to a consultation by Network Rail about changing roster hours to eight hours, which the company said will provide "more productive hours for employees while lowering the level of fatigue risk".