United Kingdom – Strikes on Southern Rail

The Southern Rail franchise, owned by the Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which controls about a fifth of the British railway network, operates the passenger train services from the South East Coast of England to the London area. Govia’s proposal to alter the role of train guards on Southern Rail by transferring the closing of train doors to drivers provoked resistance from members of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), commencing April 2016.

The issue of Driver Only Operated (DOO) trains as demanded by the bosses of Southern Rail is viewed as the start of a campaign by other rail companies to introduce the same changes on other train lines, especially in the North and Midlands.

In June RMT announced two industrial actions which would hit Scotrail and Southern Rail services. A series of strikes affecting Scotrail was announced for June/July, which were then deferred to August, and later called off by RMT to allow further negotiations between Scotrail and the RMT leadership. The rail bosses tried campaigns using social media and delivery of letters to individual train guards, in order to bring pressure to bear on them, which only led to a much larger vote for strike action.

RMT stated it had a policy for no extension of DOO on any route or service and for the guard to be in full operational control of the power-operated doors. The RMT has made it clear that the union is totally opposed to any proposals for extending DOO, reducing or abolishing the safety role of the guard in operating the doors. It is one thing for union leaders to voice opposition to changes – it is clear that it is the guards who are the ones whose future is under threat, and it is the rank and file who are the motivating force sustaining the opposition to implementing DOO.

The strike on Southern Rail by RMT guards, against the implementation of a new “on-board role” of On Board Supervisors (OBS) from 21^st August, was set for 21^st June. The change of roles between drivers and guards had already taken place on modernised trains running on other lines, which had been agreed by Aslef, the train drivers union. Most of the trains used on Southern Rail are anything but modern.

RMT are reported to have offered a seven-point plan based on retaining the guards’ role as at present, but suggesting changes to the Revenue Protection Officer (RPO) role. The role of the RPOs is usually to target people who are leaving stations who have not paid the full fare (whether by mistake or not) or trying to pay the fare at the end of their journey.

On 7^th Jul the RMT offered to defer all action for three months providing the employers pulled back from implementation of the changes to door closing procedures, in order for negotiations to take place. This was rejected by the rail bosses.

GTR had confirmed plans to implement the new on-board role from 21^st August to be undertaken by guards in their revised roles, which GTR say will protect all jobs and bring benefits to passengers across the Southern network.

Trouble on London Underground

As if to counter preconceived notions that the attacks on rail workers is only by private sector rail bosses, conflict started to move to locally-controlled public sector services. Merseyrail has already stated that it too wants to introduce DOO especially when new modernised trains are introduced.

During the summer the introduction of a Night Service on London Underground was presented and the new Labour London Mayor Sadiq Khan was out and about on the Brixton Underground station.

Members of RMT and Aslef were balloted on whether to launch a campaign of industrial action. The Night Service was introduced in August with train drivers having been recruited for a 16 hour per week contract to run that service. It then emerged that the Night Service train drivers had been “blocked” from applying for other work on London Underground (LU) for at least 18 months. With a fixed period of employment for 16 hours per week they would not be paid overtime for working at night while other employees who worked on London Underground and also for the Night Service would be paid overtime. This was condemned by RMT leadership as “blatantly discriminatory” against the train drivers. An Aslef official stated: «The vast majority of Night Tube drivers took up the job because they saw it as a stepping stone to a fulltime train driver’s job. They believed LU’s assurances that they would have opportunities to progress, not to just spend year after year working every Friday and Saturday night».

Subsequently a planned 24 hour strike was called off while the issues went to arbitration. The London Mayor Sadiq Khan welcomed the suspension of strike action saying «negotiations can now continue without unnecessary disruption for commuters».

The Fundamental Issue of Safety of Driver Only Trains

The issues in dispute revolve around different terms, that is Driver Only Operated (DOO) and Driver Only Controlled (DOC). The rail bosses keep using the DOO term as being perfectly safe for the train to leave solely under the control of the driver, and by implication that the train can be run with only the driver present. The opposition to DOO, in favour of DOC, is that there needs to be a second person on the train in case of safety issues arising. It is in fact misleading to put it as “it is safe for the train to leave under the sole control of the driver” when the issue would be “who deals with an emergency when it arises?”.

The chief concern of train drivers is what would happen if the only competent person present is the train driver after the train departs. If an emergency arises, no matter what is the cause and whether there is a threat to life or limb or not, the train driver would have to stop and secure the train first before leaving the cab and find out what has happened. The driver would then have to go down the train, that is if the train is not jam-packed with passengers (which could then necessitate getting down from the train and walking down the track to the carriage(s) concerned) to deal with the emergency. Then the crucial dilemma would arise: does the driver stay to deal with the emergency or get the train to the next available station for assistance. The consequences of such a situation could lead to the train driver concerned being blamed for the consequences of delays. Ultimately the pressure will be on the train drivers to concede taking out the train without a guard being present. The present situation is that there has obviously has to be a driver present for the train to be ready to leave, but if a guard is not present, the train is cancelled. “Overcoming this problem” could very well be the hidden agenda in this whole dispute, and not just the introduction of modernised trains at some future date.

The train drivers are well organised in their own skilled union, Aslef. Aslef are well used to protecting themselves as a trade union, without qualms about disadvantaging other unions on the railways. Aslef resorted to an overtime ban and with the shortage of train drivers available, this led to many cancelled trains.

Before taking on the train drivers the rail bosses would naturally try to get the guards to agree in principle to the proposed change in role of closing the train doors. The train guards continued to resist changes, making public announcements about the consequences of trains running without a competently trained second member of the train crew – access for disabled passengers with wheelchairs, especially at undermanned stations, became an important issue.

By the middle of December Aslef was warning the Government of a decade of strikes and industrial unrest on the railways. On 13^th Dec the Southern Rail network was brought to a halt by a strike by train drivers, affecting 300,000 commuters in the South East of England.

On 14^th Dec the RMT started a “Safe trains for all” campaign, warning that there would be attempts by other train companies to introduce DOO trains, and that rail companies will use this as an opportunity to force staffing changes. The disputes involving RMT members had only affected up to a third of the train services of Southern Rail.

The dispute by now had moved decisively between Aslef and Southern Rail bosses. Southern Rail was insisting that trains could be operated safely with DOO, but by now there was no mention of modernised trains or that the present trains would be operated with only the driver controlling the train. Arguments were batted backwards and forwards over the reliability of on-board cameras, which in many cases were 15 years old.

On 22^nd Dec Southern Rail bosses tried going over the heads of the Aslef leadership by sending an earlier offer rejected by the Aslef leadership in a letter delivered to all the train drivers.

On 8^th Jan Aslef imposed an overtime ban on the Southern Rail network. About a quarter of the trains did not run because of the unavailability of train drivers. Two days later Southern Rail was brought virtually to a halt by the train drivers’ strike. The following day a second successive strike by 1,000 train drivers led to the cancellation of nearly all of the 2,242 train services. Another strike was planned for 13^th Jan – and three more strikes were announced for 24, 25 and 27^th Jan.

Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party Leader, had been seen swanning around Aslef leaders with talk about joining their picket lines, but was apparently silent about the RMT, which is not affiliated to the Labour Party. Aslef puts money into the labour Party while RMT doesn’t.

On 18^th Jan the Aslef three day strike was called off by the union leaders, along with the overtime ban being lifted, so that negotiations could be held with the bosses of Southern Rail.

Secret negotiations took place at the headquarters of the Trade Union Congress (TUC) over an eleven day period. The TUC was playing the role of arbitrator between the employers and the Aslef leaders. Significantly RMT leaders were not involved. On 2^nd Feb Aslef announced that an end to the dispute was in sight after winning a “significant concession” from rail bosses. The details of the bosses-union leaders deal was being kept secret, and the nearly 1,000 train driver members of Aslef were to be balloted on the terms of the TUC sponsored peace deal. RMT leaders were declaring this deal to be “a shocking betrayal”.

As the terms of this secret rail bosses/Aslef leadership deal began to be released to the Aslef members there was real anger expressed by rank and file members of Aslef. Aslef leaders had agreed to eight “exceptional circumstances” where trains could leave without a second train staff member being on board. The agreed accepted absence of the present role of the guard is where the second crew member is rostered (down on the schedules as due for work) and is not present for reasons of sickness, lateness, delay (a previous train being late) right through to… being accidently left behind at a station. There was also an intention to train the On-Board Supervisor to deal with emergencies. It seems as if the role of the guard is to be transformed, if not eliminated.

Real anger was expressed by Aslef train drivers when the terms of this secret deal were made known to them. On 16^th Feb the results of the Aslef members’ secret ballot were released – almost three-quarters of the members voted and the bosses/union leaders deal was rejected by a 54%-46% majority.

New negotiations have been promised between Southern Rail bosses and the Aslef leadership. It seems certain that the RMT will not at present be invited.

The instinctive solidarity of train drivers and guards on the railways, and resistance to the attacks on living and working standards of the workers on London Underground, provide a basis for a real rank and file movement, tending to overcome sectional and industrial divisions, and keeping their struggles out of the hands of trade union leaders who side with the bosses and their state.