New strikes in the UK against Driver Only Operated trains
By
Thomas Scripps
15 July 2017
Industrial action by rail workers across Britain against the imposition of Driver Only Operated trains (DOO) continued last weekend.
Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union members struck for three days July 8-10 at Arriva Trains Northern and staged one-day walkouts at Merseyrail and Southern GTR on July 10. A further one-day strike is planned for Merseyrail workers on the July 23. An indefinite overtime ban by Southern train drivers in the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen (ASLEF) union announced last month remains in force.
These are the latest actions in a long-standing dispute over rail companies’ efforts to impose DOO. Some 6,000 conductors jobs are threatened by the move, imperilling the safety of millions of passenger throughout the rail network. Strikes were first launched by the RMT and ASLEF in April 2016, in the face of court injunctions against strikers.
Since then, the unions have worked to limit the struggle to a series of intermittent one and two-day walkouts, with repeated offers to the rail companies to call off action and enter talks. What strikes have been called have been plagued by last-minute cancellations and suspensions by the unions, including a five-day walkout in May 2016 that was called off after just three days.
The RMT and ASLEF have worked assiduously to divide rail workers, keeping strikes of conductors and drivers separate for the most part. Following attempts by ASLEF to end its dispute with Southern GTR and impose a sellout deal, RMT leaders denounced their fellow union before immediately backtracking and insisting that the deal was ASLEF’s internal affair.
In March, many ASLEF drivers employed by Merseyrail defied the…