Rail workers have demonstrated the power of collective action as they shut down rail lines across East Anglia in a strike against bosses treating staff "like dirt."
More than 2,000 union members at rail privateer National Express East Anglia walked out at dawn at the start of a 48-hour strike to force management into talks over their pay.
All commuter trains into London's busy Liverpool Street station were stopped and services to the capital's airport at Stansted had to be withdrawn as rail unions RMT and ASLEF hailed the "solidly supported" industrial action.
Speaking on the picket line at Liverpool Street station in the City, RMT leader Bob Crow revealed that "this strike has been solidly supported across the franchise and managers are only running a token ghost service on a handful of lines as a publicity stunt."
Also hit by the strike were rail services in Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, Suffolk, Essex and Hertfordshire.
National Express boss Andrew Chivers insisted that the strike was "unnecessary, because we have offered workers a 2.5 per cent salary increase above the rate of inflation."
But ASLEF union organiser Andy Morrison dismissed the company's claim as "total fabrication," pointing out that the unions had "never put a figure on our pay claim.
"This dispute is not just about pay - there has been a breakdown of industrial relations," he stressed.
ASLEF general secretary Keith Norman added that "National Express is responsible for the total mistrust that exists between the company and their train driver employees.
"The dispute is about the poor industrial relations that have existed in this company for a long time - with little genuine effort being made by management to resolve issues," he stated.
The strike comes as the privateer admitted that it lost £20 million in the first six months of the year running the East Coast Main Line route from London to Scotland.
The government has already announced that it will renationalise the franchise later this year, but Mr Crow demanded that the company's failure showed that it should "be taken off the tracks as soon as possible.
"RMT wants all of National Express's franchises returned to public ownership," he stormed.
"The company's bosses have soaked up £2.5 billion in taxpayer subsidies in the past 10 years and have milked every penny out of this franchise while treating their staff like dirt."
Workers in both unions voted by more than nine to one to take industrial action, which will continue for the next three Thursdays and Fridays if management continues to refuse to come to the negotiating table.
One East Anglia train driver, who requested that his name be withheld for fear of management reprisals, insisted that a strike was "the only way to deal with this company.
"It's not easy for us at the moment because we will lose money by doing this but, when 95 per cent of your staff are voting for a strike, you know there's a real problem."
Morning Star - 30.07.09
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