TSSA announces a week of industrial action in November

EDIT: TSSA has cancelled its strike action, and action short of strike on 3 November to honour the Royal British Legion's Poppy Day.

EDIT: TSSA has cancelled it's Action Short of Strike in East Midlands Railway. An earlier draft of this article incorrectly stated that ASOS would take place in EMR on 6 November. This was inaccurate, ASPS was only planned in EMR for 5th November.

Rail union TSSA has today announced nearly a week of industrial action, including strikes in November in their ongoing dispute over pay, job security and conditions.
 
Thousands of TSSA members in Network Rail will take strike action on Thursday 3, Saturday 5, Monday 7 and Wednesday 9 November whilst members in individual train companies will take strike action and action short of strike on 3, 4, 7, and 8 November.

Members in five rail companies – South Western Rail, Southeastern, West Midlands Trains, Northern and Great Western - will take action short of strike action for the whole of November, and a sixth company, Transpennine Express will join them from 7^th November.

Members involved in the action include staff working in ticket offices, stations, control rooms, and other support roles across Britain.
 
TSSA is seeking a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, a pay rise which meets the cost-of-living crisis and no unagreed changes to terms and conditions.

TSSA General Secretary, Manuel Cortes, said: “Our members never take industrial action lightly.

"We would far rather find a fair negotiated solution to this now long-running dispute, but we simply have no choice.

"A huge number of rail workers in our union, many of whom are longstanding members, had never been directly involved in an industrial dispute before this year.

"Across our railways, our members recently stepped up to the plate yet again and went above and beyond to meet unprecedented demand during the period of public mourning to provide additional services and keep the public safe, much like they did during the pandemic. They prove their worth time and time again and yet they are still undervalued.

"When this dust has settled over Rishi Sunak’s coronation, I hope that whoever he appoints as the new Secretary of State for Transport will see sense, unlike Grant Shapps, and use their powers to mandate a fair pay rise, reasonable terms and conditions and end this dispute. It’s time for Train Operators to be allowed to meet us round the table and negotiate a fair solution.”

Strike action on 4 November will take place in:

West Midlands Trains

Action short of a strike on 4 November will take place in:

Network Rail

GTR

Strike action on 5 November will take place in:

Network Rail

Avanti West Coast

East Midlands Railway

Transpennine Express

Great Western Railway (Ban on on-call activities including vacant on-call lines in addition to long-term ASOS)

Action short of a strike on 5 November will take place in:

GTR

Action short of a strike on 6 November will take place in:

Network Rail 

Transpennine Express

GTR

Strike action on 7 November will take place in:

Network Rail

Strike action on 8 November will take place in:

C2C

Continuous action short of strike (ASOS) is taking place in these companies:   

• South Western Railway (ASOS, excluding overtime ban continuous since 1 October)
• South Eastern Railway (ASOS, excluding overtime ban continuous since 1 October)
• West Midlands Trains (ASOS including ban on voluntary contingency cover continuous since 1 October)
• Northern (ASOS comprising a ban on undertaking contingency duties arising from industrial action, continuous since 1 October)
• Great Western Railway (ASOS including a ban on undertaking contingency duties arising from industrial action and a ban on out of hours work from 12:00 on Friday 7 October until 23:59 on Sunday 11 December. Additionally, from 00:01 Thursday 27th October till 23:59 Sunday 11 December a ban on double-desking) 
• Transpennine Express (ASOS, including a ban on undertaking contingency duties arising from industrial action, a ban on out of hours communication, and a ban on on-call activities including ban on covering vacant on-call lineswill start at 00:01 on Monday 7th November 2022 and run to 23:59 on Monday 2nd January 2023)