More rail disruption possible in Coventry and Warwickshire

[dutchman]

A union is warning an overtime pay row that saw a raft of London Midland trains cancelled across Coventry and Warwickshire yesterday could continue.



ASLEF were speaking after drivers refused to work after the company cut Sunday overtime pay by 10 percent.

London Midland says it was never a binding permanent deal.

Director of Operations and Safety, Wallace Weatherill, said: “London Midland is phasing these temporary Sunday arrangements from double time to time-and-a-half over four months to allow families to budget for the change.”

“Our drivers do a demanding and highly responsible job, but our disagreement is with ASLEF and its unrealistic demands, rather than individual drivers.”

ASLEF have told Mercia they are angry that the changes have been brought in without any consultation – and rep Mick Whelan said he didn’t buy their reasoning that the reductions were needed because it is financially unsustainable:

“At no time have they come to us and said that, it’s interesting from a company whose revenues have increased by 9 percent in the past 12 months.”

“All that the company’s poor tactics do is harden attitudes of the people on the ground, they’ll get less and less goodwill rather than more and more.”

He also warned the dispute could affect weekend trains for some time: “I think it will for some time. The company’s attitudes are attritional and aggressive at the moment and we are actually trying not to over-react.”

All this comes after the two sides met last week to talk through another overtime dispute that’s seen dozens of services between Coventry and Nuneaton replaced by buses over the past three weeks.

A deal has expired and has yet to be renewed.

You can see a day-by-day breakdown of how services are affected here.

Mr Wallace Weatherill says customers are getting the time to plan around the action:

“We’ve been trying to give as much information to passengers as possible about what trains will be affected.”

“We’ve used our website to give at least 48 hours notice, we’ve found that particularly useful to pass information on to the customers.”