Avanti West Coast and Northern workers formed picket lines at stations across the county on the first of three days of strike action nationwide.
In Carlisle, Craig Johnston, RMT regional organiser, was at the city’s train station and said there were picket lines across the city.
He said: “Basically we’re here because the Government is saying to us that they’re going to attack our jobs, our terms and conditions, our wages and our pension scheme. They’ve offered us a two per cent pay rise when inflation is at 11 per cent, and they’re refusing to negotiate with us in any way sensibly.
“It’s a very depressing day because it’s a bad news story for everybody whether you’re passengers or rail workers but we have to say ‘well, what choice have we got?’.”
And the response of passers-by?
“I had one guy who was really negative and totally opposed to it, said I should be back shovelling coal on a steam train,” said Mr Johnston. “Every other comment that we’ve had has been supportive. We understand that we’re inconveniencing people but when you say to people ‘what alternative have we got?’, it’s very difficult for anyone to come up with an answer to that.”
And Mr Johnson offered other words to members of the public.
“My message to people is: the people who are really behind this are the Government, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps in particular and the Department for Transport. But every Tory MP had got some responsibility here. They’re proposing the loss of 3,000 safety critical rail maintenance track workers’ jobs; they’re proposing the closure of every ticket office in England; and they’re proposing other cuts to frontline staff including train catering.
“And that’s a bad news story for rail passengers as well because it’s potentially a disaster for rail safety and certainly for passenger service. So we’re trying to fight to maintain services for passengers. We’re also saying that we can’t tolerate this level of job cuts.
“We worked all through the pandemic, all of us; none of us were furloughed. We were described then by Grant Shapps as heroes. Now we’re being treated as the poor relations of everybody.”
What does the rail strike mean for me? What’s happening this week- read more here.
