MANCHESTER, England — Rail workers hired by contractor Carlisle Support Services who staff ticket gate lines for Northern Trains took their third day of strike action March 16 in a fight over two-tier pay, working conditions and for union recognition. Thirty-five members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers union were on the picket line at Piccadilly Station here, with dozens more picketing at Manchester Victoria Station, and at train stations in Wigan and Leeds, almost 80 workers in all.
The mood among the workers was confident despite moves by the bosses to weaken their action. Carlisle Support Services has pressed 18 new hires to work through the strike. Northern Trains bosses, for their part, have also sought to attack the strike, deploying higher-paid company workers to staff ticket gate lines.
In the lead-up to the strike, solidarity cards circulated around Piccadilly Station by RMT members were signed by over 140 rail workers — rail cleaners, train drivers, conductors, catering and ticket-office staff, and other workers from different rail companies and contractors. Many who signed hadn’t known the strikers, who also wear Northern Trains uniforms on the job but don’t get the same pay and conditions as directly employed Northern workers.
Some of the messages on the cards read, “Strength in numbers, we are with you” from a conductor, “Let’s do this!” from a contractor for Rail Gourmet, and “Your fight is our fight!”
Conor Price, a conductor at Piccadilly Station and member of the National Executive Committee of the RMT, presented a folder with all the signed cards to Gary Corrigan, who was leading the picket line there. “We’re determined to see this through. We’re in it for the long haul. We’ve been fighting this for four years,” Corrigan said. After seeing the cards, Julian Hasford, a striking gate line worker said, “This shows we’re not alone.”
Another striker, Hussein Mohamed, said the important thing “is the collective effort we put in.”