Southern rail strike: RMT to hold 24-hour walkout after 'exclusion' from talks

Southern: Commuters are facing more chaos on the railway
Mark Chandler19 January 2017

Southern strikes by RMT members will go ahead next week after its "exclusion" from talks between Aslef and the company, the union has said.

Guards will walk out for 24-hours on Monday in their long-running dispute over changes to their role.

The union also has a small number of members who drive Southern trains, and they will strike on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday next week.

The main drivers' union, Aslef, has suspended its planned strikes next week, and called off an overtime ban, while it holds talks with the train operator under the co-chairmanship of the TUC.

RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT demands again today that this union be given access to exactly the same talks process in our Southern Rail disputes as has been brokered for our sister union by the TUC.

"We would remind all parties that not only is RMT a recognised drivers' union on Southern but that it is also our guards members who have made huge personal sacrifices in the long fight for passenger safety.

"The notion that some sort of deal can be done which leaves those Southern guards out in the cold is ludicrous.

"As a result of our exclusion from the talks process set up by the TUC and the Government both our guards and drivers' action remains on next week and we demand and expect a positive response to our fresh demand for a seat at the negotiating table."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in