Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Union of Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), has insisted he was not against the change. “What we have here is an unreasonable agenda of massive wage cuts, job cuts and cuts to our terms and conditions,” he said Monday.
But industry sources suggest otherwise. Another example they cite is the renovation of Birmingham New Street station, which began in 2010.
Prior to the reconstruction, the train crews were housed in a “dark, damp” room in the bowels of the 19th-century station.
Once reconstruction of the £ 750 million station began in 2010, crews moved to the Guildhall in central Birmingham, a short walk away.
An industry source said: “The union insisted that we renegotiate the walking time, the paid time they receive from getting off the train to getting to the dining room, time that is not part of their rest.”
“[But] the union used a driver with a gammy leg and timed them from the end of the longest train, at the far end of the station, to reach the Guildhall, “the source added.
“And not even for the exit behind the Guildhall, which goes directly across the road from the station, but all over the building to use the main entrance where the lifts were.
“The new walking time was set at 12 minutes.”
The walk lasts one minute, according to Google Maps. Meanwhile, maintenance crews cannot cross the boundary lines.
This means, for example, that if there is a fault on the Kings Cross line at Potters Bar and no staff is available to fix it, a member of the nearby Euston line at Watford cannot enter the breach.
“[If] the Euston team that had no calls to its patch could have reached 500 yards to Kings Cross to solve the problem in a short time, “the source said.
The list goes on, they add. “Our specialized teams will not share vans or equipment, so we cannot send a van with a mixed team, we have to send two or more to each job. The specialized teams will not collaborate to the point of not helping to unload the equipment of another team either ”.