Strike ballots at rail operator – Great Western Railway (GWR)

TSSA has served notice to ballot almost five hundred workers at Great Western Railway (GWR) for strike action and action short of strike in a dispute over pay, conditions and job security.

The union is demanding a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies for 2022, no unagreed changes to terms and conditions, and a pay increase which reflects the rising cost of living.

**Updated timetable**

Ballots open: 29 June 2022

Ballots close: 13 July 2022

The earliest that industrial action could be taken is 27 July 2022.

These ballot follows hot on the heels of similar announcements in Network Rail, Cross Country, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and Avanti West Coast, Northern, LNER and C2C in an escalating dispute across the railway.

Impact at GWR

GWR runs trains services to and from London Paddington, Didcot Parkway, Bristol Temple Meads, Bristol Parkway, Reading, Swindon, Exeter St Davids, Exeter Central, Taunton, Gloucester, Bath, Westbury, Slough, Maidenhead, Newbury.

TSSA also has GWR members at Plymouth Laira Depot (engineering managers and maintenance), St Phillips Marsh Depot, Bristol (engineering managers and maintenance), Exeter Depot (engineering managers and maintenance), Penzance Long Rock Depot and Reading Depot.

Union members are ticket office, revenue protection staff, Control managers, HQ (Swindon) managers, admin and clerical staff.

TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, said: “Our members at Great Western Railway are seeking basic fair treatment in the teeth of a crippling cost of living crisis.

“Rail workers were hailed as heroes in the pandemic and now they deserve a real terms pay rise which keeps pace with inflation, rather than shouldering the burden of the Tories’ economic meltdown.

“Our demands are simple – pay which reflects the times we live in, a deal which delivers job security, and no race to the bottom on terms and conditions.

“It’s time the government changed course. Instead of making cuts across our railway the DfT should either give GWR and other companies the signal to make us a reasonable offer, or Ministers should come to the negotiating table and speak to us directly.

“The alternative is a fast-approaching summer of discontent across our rail network. Make no mistake, we are preparing for all options, including coordinated strike action which would bring trains to a halt.”