Unions cancel West Coast rail strike after last minute deal with Virgin Trains
Unions have suspended a planned 24-hour strike on Virgin's West Coast rail line after 11th hour talks.
But there may still be delays as thousands of West Midlands commuters head home for Christmas on one of the busiest days of the year.
Following 11th hour talks with Virgin management, the RMT and TSSA unions have suspended Friday's action and further 24-hour strikes planned for January.
Virgin Trains managing director for the West Coast, Phil Whittingham, said: “We’re pleased that we’ve come to an agreement with the RMT and TSSA unions, and can focus on providing the best possible service to our customers.
"We’ll do everything we can to run a full service on Friday December 22, but because the strike has been called off at the last-minute there may be some cancellations. We’ll be working hard to make sure our customers can make it home as quickly and easily as possible for Christmas.”
Virgin Trains is recommending customers still check their journey before they travel. This is because the rosters put in place for tomorrow cover roles not affected by this action and will have to be completely re-drawn. The revised timetable will not be live on Virgin Trains website until the early hours of Friday morning.
The TSSA said it had suspended the strike action following a new offer from Virgin to settle the current pay dispute.
Union general secretary, Manuel Cortes, said "I am pleased Virgin has finally seen sense, come back to the negotiating table, and made an offer sparing our passengers further disruption at a time of the year when the just want to get to be with their loved ones for Christmas."
Around 1,800 train managers, on-board catering staff, station and clerical workers walked out on Friday last week, hitting up to a third of Virgin Trains services across the West Midlands.
A similar impact was expected tomorrow if the action had gone ahead.
Meanwhile the TSSA is balloting its members at Cross Country trains over strike action in the New Year
TSSA says it to ballot members at Cross Country in a dispute about disparate pay rises for managers. The company, operated by Arriva, is refusing union demands to to pay managers the same 3.3% deal with £900 bonus payment plus concessionary rail travel in retirement.
The union says this deal was agree agreed for those covered by TSSA collective bargaining earlier this year but on direct orders from Berlin – where Arriva's German owners Deutsche Bahn are based – managers not covered by collective bargaining are being awarded just 1%.
TSSA general secretary, Manuel Cortes, “You’ve got to pay tribute to the sense of fair play and solidarity among our manager members. They can't just stand aside and allow the company to get treat them as second class citizens.
“We’d urge all managers if not yet part of our union family to join our union ASAP to minimise the vindictive treatment being meted our to them by the mighty and, very wealthy, German rail company Deutsche Bahn
'And we put Arriva, and Deutsche Bahn on notice that they are picking on the wrong people at the wrong time at Cross Country.
“Ballot papers will go out on December 28 with a recommendation from our union that members support industrial action.Should the company wish to up the offer on their tight decision in the meantime, we will of course be all ears.”
