Strike action looms at rail maintenance business
At least 200 rail workers have voted to go on strike over plans to “fire and rehire” them on poorer conditions.
Members of the RMT and Unite unions, who are employed by rail maintenance firm Wabtec in Hexthorpe, Doncaster, are set to walk out for four days from 10 June.
A second phase of strike action from 27 June to 3 July is also expected, with more strikes to be announced.
The unions said the new contracts would involve “breaks cut and staff working extra hours for no extra pay”.
Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said the company was “the latest in the line of bad bosses seeking to use the abhorrent practice of ‘fire and rehire’ to attack workers and cut pay”.
US-owned Wabtec is a maker and supplier of equipment for the railway industry. Its Doncaster employees maintain and repair rail stock, including carriages and wheels.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the company had “behaved appallingly” and wanted members to “pay for the company’s financial problems by firing staff and rehiring them on inferior wages and conditions.
“Wabtec bosses should be ashamed of tarnishing Doncaster’s proud history of manufacturing, with predecessors building the Flying Scotsman and Mallard locomotives,” he said.
But in a statement to the BBC, a Wabtec spokesman responded: “We are disappointed with the union’s rejection of our two-year 8.25% wage increase proposal, which was not balloted by their members.
“We have spoken to employees directly, which has resulted in more than 70% of the workforce voluntarily agreeing to the new working practices and the pay increase.
“In the end, union leadership decided they would rather disregard the best interests of their members and would not support Wabtec in building a strong future for the Doncaster workforce.”
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