1,000 signatures reached
To: Tricia Williams, Managing Director, Northern Trains
Northern Trains: End the dispute with Carlisle and bring outsourced rail workers in-house
Outsourced station staff who work for Carlisle on Northern Trains stations are involved in a bitter dispute in pursuit of fair pay and better treatment. They face bullying and intimidation from Carlisle just for exercising their legal right to take industrial action.
Northern Trains control and fund the contract with Carlisle and they can resolve this dispute now. They can mandate Carlisle to negotiate a new pay offer and stop the bullying of our members.
Northern Trains control and fund the contract with Carlisle and they can resolve this dispute now. They can mandate Carlisle to negotiate a new pay offer and stop the bullying of our members.
They can also end the scandal of outsourcing by ending their contracts with Carlisle, ISS and Amulet and bringing the workers into Great British Railways now.
Why is this important?
Northern Trains is becoming part of a publicly owned Great British Railways, which is good news for passengers and rail workers.
But many rail workers are being left out of Great British Railways because they are outsourced to private companies.
Outsourcing companies cut costs to boost profits, resulting in worse pay and conditions for staff and a worse service for passengers.
Northern Trains currently outsources station staff, cleaners and security guards to Carlisle, ISS and Amulet.
Carlisle is owned by the Tory donor and tax exile Lord Ashcroft and its treatment of staff is typical of the worst of outsourcing firms.
· Imposing low pay: RMT members at Carlisle have been in a long-running dispute because the company won’t negotiate their pay, choosing to impose the minimum possible pay rates it can get away with. Our members have been forced to take industrial action in the form of strikes and refusing to scan tickets to try to get a negotiated pay rise.
· Bullying staff for taking legal strike action: Since the dispute began, Carlisle managers have tried to bully and intimidate our members into submission. Carlisle keep many of our members on zero hours contracts and threaten to cut their shifts or their holiday if our members take legal strike action.
· Passing the buck: Carlisle and Northern keep passing the buck between them, each blaming the other for the dispute, while hoping our members will be starved into giving up.
This treatment brings shame on Northern Trains.