Saturday rail strikes to continue all through January in safety row

The rail strikes which have hit the borough's railways on Saturdays will continue all through January.
A Northern trainA Northern train
A Northern train

The RMT union has called four more weekend days of industrial action for Northern employees in a long-running row over keeping a second member of staff on all services.

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The 24-hour walk-outs will take place on each of the first four Saturdays in 2019 (January 5, 12, 19 and 26).

The dispute has been rumbling on for almost two years, with the RMT preparing for its 41st day of industrial action on Saturday.

RMT again attacked train bosses, saying the company was not interested in taking the measures necessary to bring the row to an end.

General secretary Mick Cash said: "RMT continues to make every effort to get serious and meaningful talks going with Northern but the company are not interested and would prefer to call for an inquiry into the dispute to deflect attention from the impact of their behaviour on the travelling public.

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"German-owned Northern Rail want to run nearly half a million trains a year without a safety critical guard on board in a move that would wreck both safety and access ‎to services and they should listen to their front-line staff and pull back from that plan immediately.

“We thank the public for their support and understanding throughout this dispute over rail safety and access and the union remains ready for genuine and serious talks.”