Eight out of ten workers for the company, which operates the East Coast Main Line through Retford as well its station, opted for strike action in a ballot run by the RMT union.
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Southern Railway has called for fresh talks to try to resolve a bitter row over the role of conductors as a five-day strike from Monday to Friday caused more travel misery for hundreds of thousands of passengers his week.
In a long-running dispute workers will strike over two weekends in August totalling seven days.
The RMT called off off the strike that has led to 40% of services being slashed this week in exchange for new talks without preconditions.
“On Friday we plan to revert to the revised timetable operating before the strike”.
For any updates go to www.southernrailway.com for further information. Passengers on affected services will be offered alternative bookings, it added.
We all know that everything concerning Southern Rail is a complete mess at the moment, and the latest strike wasn’t filling passengers with any hope.
The RMT’s general secretary Mick Cash said: “Our train manager members at Eurostar have a heavy commitment to shift work and unsocial hours and are sick and exhausted of the companys failure to honour agreements”.
RMT union’s protest outside Department for Transport offices as part of its dispute with Southern (photo provided by RMT).
Chris Grayling claimed the strike involved only minor issues and “feels like an excuse to be militant” by “unions trying to turn the clock back”.
Another commentator, @somersetlevel, said: “RMT dinosaurs announce 7 days of Eurostar strikes over work/life balance”.
Fifty-five members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union will begin the action this Friday, which the company said would see a maximum of four train services cancelled each day of the strike.
A spokesman for Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR), which owns Southern, told Transport Network: ‘Unless the RMT agrees to our offer as detailed, including agreement of the list of exceptional circumstances, we will be progressing our plans later this month on terms determined by us’. The union now says Eurostar has failed to honour the deal.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “RMT will not sit back while almost 200 members’ jobs are under threat and while conditions and safety are put at risk”.
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” This strike has to stop and has to stop now”.
