UK workers on Virgin Trains East Coast to go on three strikes
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The strike will be from 0300 BST on 19, 26 and 29 August, bank holiday Monday. About 1,800 members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) are involved and are to protest over disputes concerning cuts, work conditions and safety.
The train operator said it is making changes to customer facing roles where a single person will take responsibility on trains. Which will not impact customer safety. Virgin said the strikes will not affect the train timetable.
Virgin Trains managing director, David Horne, said: "With our guarantees that there will be no compulsory redundancies, no impact on safety and a full timetable in place during the walk-outs, these strikes will cost RMT members pay for no reason, and we urge the union to rejoin us around the negotiating table."
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said members of the union would "not tolerate the cavalier attitude to safety that is now on show as the company mobilises its scab army of managers".
"The company have chosen to treat the negotiations as a game thus far, merely going through the motions of pretending they did not yet know what their plans entailed. To behave like that is to treat the union and its members with pure contempt."
RMT members from Virgin Trains voted by 84% to strike last week. ■