Rail maintenance engineers are to strike over the Easter weekend.
Over 80 of the Transport Salaried Staff Association, employed at Network Rail, will walk out over the Easter weekend.
The strike is predicted to a have major impact on people travelling over the festive period. The strike will affect Northern, Transpennine, Virgin and Cross Country trains. Officials say it will also hit the planned engineering works scheduled to take place over the holiday period.
TSSA leader Manuel Cortes said: “TSSA has been trying for years to persuade Network Rail to honour agreements relating to annual pay increases which are linked to the knowledge and skills of these professional staff, many of whom are graduates.
“Network Rail has refused to budge, and the considerable patience of our members has finally been exhausted.”
This follows an almost annual strike carried out by British Rail Services, with varying degrees of success.
Strikes in the past have secured them a 1% pay increase, though it is not clear whether this will be the result this time.
“They don’t want to walk off the job, they just want to be paid what they are contractually entitled to,” continued Cortes. “Bizarrely, Network Rail has already paid some of these staff what they were owed, with payments in some cases being in excess of £10,000, but they suddenly put the shutters up.”
Given the small scale of the strike it is doubtful that action will be taken. However, due to the strategic date of the event, it will come as a double blow, both with the predicted increase in travelers and the engineering works.
CALEY COURIER 