Eurostar rail workers will strike for seven days this month due to a long-running dispute over work-life balance, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport says.
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The RMT Union have confirmed that staff will walk out from 00:01 on 12 August until 23.59 BST on 15 August, and for three days over the UK Bank Holiday weekend from 27 August.
According to Cash, members of Eurostar’s union are determined to sit at the negotiation table until the company guarantees them a harmonious work-life cycle.
The union explains that Eurostar made a promise back in 2008 to ensure that train managers will be assigned working hours that allow them to have a positive work-life balance.
But it is too late for many passengers – who face the same disruption tomorrow because Southern claims it can’t change the timetable in time.
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”.
Strikes by Southern Railway workers on Thursday and Friday have been called off but services will still be disrupted even though fresh talks are to be held in the bitter row over the role of conductors.
Mr David Horne, managing director for Virgin Trains on the east coast said: “We have worked hard to ensure there are comprehensive contingency plans in place and I want to reassure our customers that the timetable will be unaffected, should any strike go ahead”.
A spokesman for Southern Railway said: “We are encouraged that the RMT has accepted our offer to resume talks at Acas and has agreed to call off its strike action”.
Transport secretary Chris Grayling was said to be “very disappointed” that unions kept calling strike action over “what appear to be pretty minor matters”, adding that the decision felt like “an excuse to be militant”.
Both parties welcomed the move which the RMT said had come after Southern agreed to drop talk preconditions.
However, Eurostar have said all passengers with reservations will still be able to travel.
“The ball is now in their court”, he said.
Parent company Govia Thameslink (GTR) said on Tuesday it would talk with the RMT “any time, any place, anywhere” in a bid to end the strike.
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” This strike has to stop and has to stop now”.
