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Virgin East Coast staff vote to strike (STRIKE CALLED OFF)

Posted by (Gateshead, UK) on

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-37023141

In a similar vein to what's going on with Southern, Virgin East Coast staff have voted overwhelmingly to go on strike, for what I assume is the same issue. Nothing is confirmed at the moment other than the intention, I just thought it would be good to keep visitors informed. I will try and add updates as more info becomes available, and recommend anyone post updates as replies if they find things out before I do.

Cliff Notes version: if you are planning to head to York, Leeds, Durham, Newcastle, Alnmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed or Edinburgh in the future, your journey may be affected. Strike dates TBA.

EDIT: Strike dates are now confirmed - all day on Friday 19th, Friday 26th and Monday 29th of August.
EDIT 2: Strike now postponed as talks continue.

Posted by
32732 posts

Thanks for the update.

I haven't seen a date yet either, but I do know that it is about the same general issue, removing safety critical duties from Guards on the East Coast Line between Kings Cross and Scotland; one side reports that if the Company removes the Guards they can more easily pay for the overpriced franchise payments that they have had to pay the Government.

Posted by
5326 posts

Virgin East Coast have indicated they will run a normal timetable through this strike. I suspect that there may well be some last minute cancellations in practice.

My understanding is that Virgin are not looking at Driver Only Operation but merger of the guard and crew leader roles. Although I doubt the new composite job will include serving the first class meals as the crew leader sometimes does.

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