Union members at GWR, Greater Anglia and TransPennine endorse major network disruption as pay conflict blows up
Almost 700 members of the union TSSA working at Great Western Railway (GWR), TransPennine and Greatter Anglia have voted in favour of industrial action.
According to the union, which announced the ballot’s result today, members balloted voted in favour of both strike and action short of strike.
But, due to current laws, only GWR workers passed the legal threshold for both.
No dates have been announced yet, as the union needs to give a two weeks’ notice.
“The results demonstrate that our members are utterly determined to fight for their pay, jobs and conditions via strike action or action short of a strike – which means they can’t cover for other trade union’s members taking strike action,” said TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes.
This comes on the heels of the union urging government-owned Network Rail to “wake up” after the operator’s latest pay offer was slammed as “well below expectations.”
The union has received an improved pay offer from Network Rail of three per cent for management grades, and four per cent for general grades, with the potential for further increases if productivity commitments are met.
However, TSSA has noted that amid spiralling inflation, the proposed pay rise will “bake-in real terms pay cuts”.
TSSA members at several operators including – Southeastern, LNER and C2C – have voted in favour of industrial action over the last few weeks, threatening to bring about what many call the UK’s “summer of discontent.”