Strike action disrupts West Midlands Trains rail services

A fig of obstruction services successful the West Midlands volition beryllium disrupted by onslaught enactment connected Friday.

Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA) members are walking retired successful a enactment implicit wage and conditions, affecting West Midlands Trains services.

Two different unions person planned a large-scale onslaught this play which volition interaction 14 bid companies.

West Midlands Trains says it volition run constricted services betwixt Birmingham and Liverpool and Birmingham and London betwixt 07:30 and 19:30 GMT connected Friday, but each its different trains volition beryllium cancelled.

It volition mean the cancellation of services successful the West Midlands conurbation, Warwickshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, Shropshire and Staffordshire.

The national has astir 18,000 members and began taking enactment against Network Rail and bid operating companies successful the summer.

It said the quality was implicit "job security, a wage emergence that reflects the rising outgo of surviving and nary changes to presumption and conditions without agreement".

The national has plans for further concern enactment affecting passengers travelling with Avanti West Coast; C2C; East Midlands Railway; GTR; South Western Railway; and Southeastern Railway, moving to 9 November.

But onslaught enactment which would person affected Network Rail, arsenic good arsenic CrossCountry bid services, volition not spell ahead.

The TSSA said it had suspended the planned enactment against Network Rail "in bid to facilitate the advancement of ongoing 'constructive, intensive and elaborate discussions'".

Meanwhile, the RMT national has called strikes for 5, 7 and 9 November, which volition interaction the employees of 14 bid companies.

The Rail Delivery Group, which represents bid companies, says lone astir 20% of services are expected to run, and those that run volition commencement aboriginal and decorativeness earlier, betwixt 07:30 and 18:30 GMT.

In immoderate parts of the state determination volition beryllium nary services moving astatine all.

Unions are urging bosses to boost salaries to bespeak the increasing outgo of living.

Network Rail said the connection it made successful July is worthy 8% implicit 2 years, but depended connected workers accepting its "modernisation plans".

However, the RMT - which represents obstruction workers - said this was a "paltry sum" and represented a real-terms wage cut.

The RMT said different contented was Network Rail's plans to chopped 2,500 attraction jobs, arsenic it tries to prevention £2bn implicit the adjacent 2 years. The national described those jobs arsenic "safety critical".

Network Rail said determination would beryllium nary much than 2,000 occupation losses - and that each redundancies could beryllium voluntary. It said it would not see immoderate changes that would marque the railways little safe.