NEWS.CATEGORY: Industrial
TPE: TSSA Announce December Strike Action In TPE
After the news that pay talks had broken down earlier in the week with representatives from the Train Operating companies (TOC’s) via the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), TSSA organised a meeting last night of all of our Representatives from the TOC’s and Network rail.
As a result of this meeting and the feedback from representatives TSSA is announcing Strike action in TransPennine Express (TPE) on Saturday 17th December.
TPE members are instructed not to commence work on any shift starting between 00:01 to 23:59 on Saturday 17th December 2022
Strike Action will therefore take place for the whole of the shifts commencing during this period. Accordingly, strike action will also take place on Sunday 18th December in respect of any members expected to commence shifts before 23:59 on Saturday 17th December 2022 whose shifts run into Sunday 18th December 2022.
Important Re-ballot – Vote YES YES!
We need to keep the pressure up for an acceptable deal to be tabled for our members to consider and force a situation that enables a pay offer to be made. As some of the mandates for industrial action expire in the new year we have decided to re-ballot our members in TPE, both for Strike Action and Action Short of Strike.
It is extremely important that when you receive your ballot papers that you vote YES, YES and vote immediately to ensure your ballot paper is received. We are aware that there are number of Postal strikes planned in December and therefore it is imperative that you vote and vote as soon as you receive your papers to ensure your vote is counted! If we get a strong turn out with support for both Strike Action and Action Short Of Strike then this gives your negotiators more power in the negotiations by sending a clear message to the powers that be that you want this dispute resolved!
If you don’t receive your Ballot paper by Thursday 8th December, then please email our Membership team at membership@tssa.org.uk to inform them and confirm your correct home address. If you can share your membership number and the company that you work for this will aid our membership team to process your request speedily and pass on the information to Civica who are conducting the ballot on our behalf (by Law we need to appoint a 3rd party to conduct the Industrial action ballot).
We strongly encourage that you post your ballot paper as soon as you receive it, and whatever happens you should post it but it is recommended that you post it no later than Monday 19th December to ensure that it is received.
Remember only members get a say in this vote so please encourage your colleagues to join us to ensure that they have a day in future, they can join TSSA online.
Previous notification of ASOS:
This Strike action on the 17th of December is in addition to the Action Short of Strike (ASOS) previously notified to the company which will consist of calling members to participate in:
• Ban on undertaking contingency duties arising from industrial action
• Ban on out of hours work communication
• Ban on on-call activities including ban on covering vacant on-call lines
This will take place over the following times and dates:
From 00:01 on Tuesday 13th December 2022 to 23:59 on Sunday 8th January 2023
During the period of dispute TSSA members can legitimately refuse to:
- TSSA members at TPE can legitimately refuse to carry out contingency duties such as Driving or Conducting Trains, covering Fleet grades work etc whilst those grades are taking strike action
- TSSA members at TPE can legitimately refuse to Conduct out of hours work communications, such as phone calls, emails, texts, messages etc
- TSSA members at TPE can legitimately refuse to cover the work of absent colleagues and vacancies whether they are within the same role, different roles or previous roles that no longer exist.
A link to our previous communication about ASOS can be found here