RMT Union and First Great Western In Discussions After Strike

Image Courtesy of First Group

High-speed services were affected last week between London, the West of England and Wales due to Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) members went on a 48-hour strike.

First Great Western say that they have made a “substantially revised offer” but is sticking to the previous point – drivers to have control over the doors. However, RMT are yet to comment on the new offer.

First Great Western Strikes

A spokesman for First Great Western said: “We don’t believe there are any fundamental differences of opinion between us and the RMT on issues relating to engineering, station and dispatch staff…

“The key issue that remains is that we want the driver to close the doors – which is key to our ability to run the faster, more frequent services customers should expect from a 21st Century railway.

“To think that over 2,000 staff could be asked to take more strike action and further inconvenience our customers when all but one of the issues has been dealt with just doesn’t make sense.”

Further Rail Strikes

In First Great Westerns latest open letter to customers, managing director, Mark Hopwood said there could be further strikes.

He wrote:  “We have made very clear our commitments on job security and the customer experience.

“There remains, however, the possibility that we will face more strikes and we are training more of our people in more tasks so that we can run as comprehensive a service as possible.”