Solidarity with the striking RMT members taking on Scotrail bosses

RMT members who work as conductors for Scotrail, run by the Dutch company Abellio, have taken a series of 24-hour strikes over the past three Sundays.

The dispute is over the refusal of Scotrail bosses to agree to enhanced – dynamic – payments for rest day working. Conductors and ticket examiners have been refused the payments that other grades are paid – adding to the anger that these workers are being discriminated against by the cost-cutting privatised franchise.

As RMT regional organiser Michael Hogg told us: “ As key workers we demand that they get treated as equals by an employer who advocate equal opportunities for all staff yet they deliberately and blatantly discriminate against the majority of Scotrail staff.”

All three days of strike action have been solid and services have been cancelled by Scotrail on strike days. As we go to press the RMT have announced further dates of strike action in May and June. This will pile further pressure on both Scotrail and the Scottish government as these strikes will be taking place as the trains become busier as the Covid lockdown ends.

The RMT have accused Abellio, who will lose the franchise next year, of cancelling services and seeking to extract as much money as possible before they are replaced by a Scottish government run company.

The conductors are soon to be joined in their action by Scotrail ticket collectors who have voted by 86% for strike action over the same issue. Ticket examiners will begin their strike action on May 2. Both groups of workers will strike for 24 hours every Sunday until early June.

Socialist Party Scotland and the Scottish Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition gave our full support to the RMT and the striking workers. It’s long past time that Scotrail was brought into public ownership alongside all public transport in Scotland under democratic workers’ control.

This is a policy that we are fighting for during the election campaign.

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