WITH job losses in the rail industry mounting to more than 2,000, a mass rally of rail union members at Westminster was being plan-ned as Railnews went to press.

The rally, on Tuesday 5 May, came after union leaders failed to secure intervention by transport secretary Geoff Hoon to prevent more job losses and TSSA general secretary Gerry Doherty called for him to be sacked.

After a stormy two-hour face-to-face meeting with Mr Hoon, which also involved RMT leader Bob Crow, Mr Doherty described him as the “do nothing” minister.

The lobby of Parliament was expected to demand “an industry-wide moratorium on cuts in jobs and services and a freeze in dividends with all profits invested to protect services and jobs”.

It would also call for the dev-elopment of an industry-wide strategy to manage the railway “to mitigate against, rather than exacerbate, the effects of the economic downturn”. 

In a letter to Mr Hoon, leaders of the three unions said they were astonished he is allowing the industry to make widespread job cuts against a background of massive investment in new projects, deferral of infrastructure maintenance, and fare hikes and service cuts by train operators demanding increased subsidy.

“It appears that, in effect, the Government is subsidising redundancies in almost every sector of the rail industry,” the letter said.

“In the last two months alone, train companies have announced that almost 2,000 jobs will go, allegedly as a result of a slowdown in passenger growth.

“Reports that the train companies are now also seeking your permission to cut services whilst demanding even more subsidy demonstrates that they have no regard for the wider public interest.”

The unions also claimed that Network Rail’s actions were “making a mockery” of the Government’s stated intentions to bring forward infrastructure projects to boost employment.

“We are now deeply concerned that cuts in frequency of track inspections and routine signal maintenance, combined with the reduction in renewals work, will raise signi-ficantly safety risks to passengers and workers.”

But a Network Rail spokes-man said of the union claims: “This is absolutely baseless scaremongering and safety remains our absolute priority.
“We make no apology for our tough efficiency targets and heavy maintenance of a better asset has reduced the need for renewals.”

The DfT said Mr Hoon made it clear that he expects Network Rail and train operators to fulfil their contractual obligations to passengers and the taxpayer.

A spokesman said: “We recognise that the rail industry is not immune to the recession, which is impacting on the whole economy.
“However, we are confident that the industry can remain competitive, thanks in part to £15 billion Government investment in the rail network over the next five years.”

In the meantime, around 1,000 RMT rail engineering members at Jarvis – one of Network Rail’s key contractors – were planning to ban overtime and strike for an hour on 5 May.

In addition, RMT conductors at London Midland’s Bletchley, Northampton and Watford depots are to strike on consecutive Sundays from 3 May to 21 June in a continuing dispute over Sunday working.

But the RMT has suspended strike action planned for 1 May on East Midlands Trains over 200 proposed job cuts and threat of compulsory redundancy. This will allow for ACAS talks.

The RMT is also to re-ballot its members on Southeastern for industrial action on job cuts and safety issues after the company won its legal challenge on the original ballot.