Thousands of holidaymakers to be hit by August Bank Holiday Eurostar strike

The first walkout will start this weekend giving passengers little time to change their travel plans
Kelvin Pinnock/@kelvin5385

Union bosses sparked outrage today by ordering seven days of strikes on Eurostar which will hit thousands of holidaymakers including on the busy August Bank Holiday weekend.

The walkout is the third industrial action launched by the RMT within days and was immediately condemned.

Transport Secretary Chris Grayling accused the union of being “utterly thoughtless” towards passengers and a business leader stressed it was becoming “public enemy number one”.

As hundreds of thousands of London commuters faced a third day of misery with the week-long strike on Southern Rail, the RMT this morning also announced industrial action on Eurostar.

The first walkout on the cross-Channel services will start this weekend giving passengers little time to change their travel plans.

Eurostar stressed that only a couple of return journeys a day - one to Paris and one to Brussels - were likely to be affected and reassured passengers they would still all be able to make the crossing.

The strike was ordered with the backing of just over 50 out of 70 RMT train managers on the Eurostar trains.

Members of the RMT are also supporting a walkout on the Virgin East Coast line which runs from London to the north and Scotland.

Costly: Commuters have been putting up with chaotic service on Southern Rail for months, compounded by strike action this week
Rex

Mr Grayling said: “The RMT frankly are being utterly thoughtless about their passengers and their customers,” he said.

“This series of strikes only damages people who travel on the railways and is simply unacceptable.”

David Leam, infrastructure director of business group London First, added: “The RMT is now becoming public enemy number one with their callous desire to cause havoc for passengers by striking in every direction.”

The first walkout on Eurostar takes place this Friday, then over the weekend and Monday – leaving holidays-makers and business travellers under 48 hours notice of possible cancellations, disruption and long queues at St Pancras International.

This is to be followed by a three day strike over Saturday, Sunday and Monday of the holiday weekend of August 27-29.

Eurostar has bilingual trains crews drawn from the UK, France and Belgium.

The dispute flared when UK crews accused their French counterparts of taking all the best shifts.

They say they are being prevented from working on the prime holiday routes from Paris down to Avignon and Marseille in the South of France and accuse Eurostar management of failing to honour a 2008 agreement.

This ensures train managers are entitled to expect a good work-life balance in terms of unsocial hours and duty rosters.

RMT General Secretary Mick Cash said: “Our train manager members at Eurostar have a heavy commitment to shift work and unsocial hours and are sick and tired of the company’s failure to honour agreements.

“Our members have every right to have a fair work/life balance that fulfils the operational needs of the company while guaranteeing quality time off for friends and family.”

Eurostar is urgently drawing up plans to keep disruption on the Bank Holiday weekend to a minimum.

A protest against Southern Rail at Victoria station 
Nigel Howard

A Southern Rail spokesman said the strikes had been suspended for talks but it was too late in the day to alter Thursday's train services.

"We will do our very best to add services in and extend the hours of operation wherever possible," they said.

Again today there were no Southern trains on 15 routes; they include Clapham Junction to Milton Keyes via Olympia, Redhill to Tonbridge, Sutton to Streatham via Wimbledon, Crystal Palace to Beckenham Junction and West Norwood to Tulse Hill.

Seven major sectors – Metro, Oxted, Redhill, Mainline West, Mainline East, Coastway West and Coastway East – were part closed.

There was minor disruption to Brighton mainline and Gatwick Express services.

Passengers were warned services on some routes would stop running from 6 pm.

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