Transport union RMT has threatened industrial action against Network Rail after exposing the company's intention to sack its entire maintenance workforce of 13,000 and re-employ a reduced number on inferior contracts.
The union said that the decision was aimed at "bulldozing" through a multibillion-pound cuts package.
It added that the threat to sack the workforce, who carry out the essential day-to-day maintenance of track, signals and overhead lines, was thrown at RMT representatives during reorganisation talks.
Union officials revealed that Network Rail (NR) was already planning to get rid of 2,500 jobs, including 1,800 permanent staff and 700 contractors, which amounts to nearly 20 per cent of the maintenance workforce.
They expressed concern that the company might now renege on its pledge to Transport Secretary Lord Adonis that there would be no compulsory redundancies.
In a letter to NR chief executive Iain Coucher, RMT general secretary Bob Crow demanded that the "mass dismissal" threat be withdrawn or face the prospect of industrial action.
"RMT takes this threat deadly seriously. The rail maintenance workforce have got a gun pointed at their heads," he stormed.
Mr Crow stressed that the union "will not negotiate in an atmosphere of threats and intimidation designed to bully our members into signing up to job losses and attacks on their terms and conditions."
The union leader demanded "a clear assurance that NR will stick to the promises it has given Transport Secretary Lord Adonis on no compulsory redundancies, an assurance that has been relayed by the minister to the RMT group of MPs.
"If we cannot get those assurances, then RMT will have no hesitation in considering a ballot for action to protect our members' jobs and their livelihoods."
Transport union Unite, which also has members in the NR maintenance workforce, has said that it had been in negotiation with the company for two days.
The union's regional officer Mick Stevens told the Morning Star: "We are extremely frustrated that NR are not consulting with us meaningfully with a view to reaching an agreement."
An NR spokesman defended the cuts, claiming: "With new technology and modern ways of working, we simply need less people to maintain a railway that's in the best condition it's ever been in."
www.morningstaronline.co.uk - 23.10.09
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