by Keith Richmond
The RMT has called for an end to job losses at Network Rail after it was revealed that 2,549 maintenance jobs are now under threat.
The union has warned that the planned jobs cull – of nearly one in five of the workforce – would represent a real danger to the travelling public, creating the conditions for a repeat of the Potters Bar and Hatfield rail disasters by putting essential maintenance work on hold.
Network Rail currently employs 12,995 people with 1,233 sub-contractors also working on maintenance jobs. Figures given to the RMT show that 1,816 employees are under threat and 733 contractors’ jobs have been added to the hit list.
RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: “These shocking figures expose the full extent of the jobs massacre that’s being planned by Network Rail. It would leave essential maintenance works cut to ribbons – with potentially lethal consequences for the travelling public.”
And the train drivers’ union ASLEF has slammed the axing of the proposed Glasgow airport rail link by the SNP government in Scotland as an act of “folly and betrayal”.
The union’s general secretary, Keith Norman, said: “It is desperately short-sighted – Scotland’s businesses and travellers needed a speedy link to the airport. The transport minister, who is also the climate minister, has shown his party to be pro-car, anti-train and they couldn’t care less about climate change.
