RMT will hold a day of action calling on the Scottish Government to promote and expand all jobs, skills, services and ticket offices connected to the newly nationalised ScotRail.
Scheduled for April 1 – the same day that ScotRail will enter public ownership – RMT members will rally outside Glasgow Queen Street station at noon, demanding that the new operator “delivers for Scotland’s rail passengers, communities, and workers”.
Following the early end of ScotRail’s control by Dutch firm Abellio – which saw widespread dissatisfaction over cancellations and delays, as well as what RMT described in 2021 as “some of the worst industrial relations we have seen in recent years” – the operator will be taken over by the new company ScotRail Trains Limited, which will in turn be overseen by the new Scottish Government body Scottish Rail Holdings Ltd.
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RMT - which has long supported ScotRail's move into public ownership - now argues that prioritising passengers over profit is the best way to ensure the service is “sustainable, affordable, acessible and reliable.”
This, the union says, will require that the operator breaks with a past record of cuts in the name of efficiency and commits to sustained public investment to help deliver the shift from cars to rail necessary to meet Scottish Government climate targets.
RMT have also called for ScotRail passengers to write to their MSPs and local councillors in support of these demands.
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RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch commented: “As ScotRail enters public ownership, something RMT has long campaigned for, the Scottish Government now has the opportunity to break with the past and instead recognise the central role ScotRail has to play in meeting its climate change targets and invest in creating an affordable, accessible, reliable and improved rail network in Scotland.
“ScotRail workers were heroes throughout the Covid-19 pandemic yet as they transfer into the public sector, the Scottish Government has continually refused to protect the existing no compulsory redundancy agreement. To deliver the modal shifts necessary to tackle climate change and air pollution, the Scottish Government must commit to protecting and expanding all jobs and skills, ticket offices and ScotRail services.
“RMT will be taking these messages to passengers and the Scottish Government at our day of action this Friday.”
Earlier this week, ScotRail announced that it would mark its first weekend of operation under public ownership by allowing all children aged five to 15 to travel anywhere in Scotland on their trains for free.
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