TSSA Ballot Results - Great Western Railway (GWR) Greater Anglia, TransPennine Express

Almost seven hundred TSSA rail union members at Great Western Railway (GWR), Greater Anglia and TransPennine Express have voted for industrial action in a dispute over pay, conditions and job security. 

*Members at Great Western Railway voted both for strike action and action short of a strike – and passed the required threshold for both. 

*Members at Greater Anglia voted in favour of strike action and action short of a strike – however due to anti trade union laws the threshold for action was met only for action short of a strike. 

*Members at TransPennine Express voted in favour of both strike action and action short of a strike – however due to anti trade union laws the threshold for action was met only for action short of a strike. 

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 escalating cost of living. 

TSSA has not yet named dates industrial action at these companies but will now consider next steps with workplace Reps. The ballot comes as part of an escalating dispute across the wider rail industry, and the growing likelihood of widespread disruption. 

The result of the ballot at GWR is as follows: 

Prepared to take industrial action consisting of a strike: 

· Yes: 63.6 per cent 

· No: 36.4 

· Turnout was: 64.4 per cent 

Prepared to take industrial action short of a strike: 

· Yes: 81.1 per cent 

· No: 18.9 per cent 

· Turnout was: 64.4 

The result of the ballot at Greater Anglia is as follows: 

Prepared to take industrial action consisting of a strike: 

· Yes: 69.5 per cent 

· No: 30.5 per cent 

· Turnout was: 54.6 per cent 

Prepared to take industrial action short of a strike: 

· Yes: 84.0 per cent 

· No: 16.0 per cent 

· Turnout was: 54.6 per cent 

The result of the ballot at TransPennine Express is as follows: 

Prepared to take industrial action consisting of a strike: 

· Yes: 69.4 per cent 

· No: 30.6 per cent 

· Turnout was: 56.3 per cent 

Prepared to take industrial action short of a strike: 

· Yes: 91.7 per cent 

· No: 8.3 per cent 

· Turnout was: 56.3 per cent 

Commenting, TSSA General Secretary Manuel Cortes said: “Well done to all our members at Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia and TransPennine Express and who took part in these ballots. 

“This is a great set of result for our union and comes hard on the heels of similar votes at a raft of other train operating companies and our Network Rail members. 

“The results demonstrate that our members are utterly determined to fight for their pay, jobs and conditions via strike action or action short of a strike - which means they can’t cover for other trade union's members taking strike action. 

“They are right to do so amid the escalating Tory cost of living crisis and with a chaotic government hell bent on making swingeing cuts to our rail network while inflation rages. 

“It would be unwise for any rail company to ignore the feelings of our membership. We are already in the process of speaking to workplace Reps about next steps in this dispute. 

“If Ministers had any sense they would come to the table and sort this out, so we have a fair settlement for workers who were hailed as heroes in the pandemic." 

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 Spa, Westbury, Slough, Redhill, Maidenhead, Newbury, Bridgewater, Cheltenham Spa, Chippenham, Oxford, Par, Penzance, Newton Abbott, Swansea, Westbury, Weston-Super-Mare, Yatton, Totnes, Truro, Worcester Shrub Hill. 

TSSA also has GWR members at Swindon Milford House, Swindon Western House, Swindon Holbrook House, London The Point, London MacMillan House, Bristol Desklodge, Reading Vastern House, 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. 

Impact at Greater Anglia 

Greater Anglia run train services between Cambridge, Norwich, Stanstead Airport and London Liverpool Street, taking in many services across Essex and the east of England. 

TSSA members are found in a number of roles, including station staff and managers, conductors, driver managers, train crew managers and platform team leaders. 

Impact at Trans Pennine Express (TPE) 

TPE runs train between the major cities and towns of Northern England and Scotland. The routes include links to Edinburgh, Glasgow, Liverpool, Sheffield, Hull, Leeds, Newcastle and York. 

TSSA has TPE members at stations Grimsby, Huddersfield, Hull, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester Middlesborough and York. 

TSSA members are found in a number of roles, including Driver Managers, Duty Managers, Duty Station Managers as well as in Fleet Delivery, Station Team Leaders, Conductors, Customer Service Advisors and Incident Controllers. 

*TSSA members have voted for strike action at Network Rail, LNER, c2c, East Midlands Railway, CrossCountry, in station grates at Avanti West Coast and for action short of a strike at West Midlands Trains and Northern.