SWT staff balloted over industrial action (From Richmond and Twickenham Times)
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SWT staff balloted over industrial action
1:01pm Monday 2nd March 2009 in News
A joint walk-out could halt services on South West Trains
Workers at South West Trains today began voting on possible industrial action over job cuts.
Six hundred supervisors, managers and booking clerks at SWT, one of the country's biggest rail firms, are being balloted over the company's plans to shed 680 jobs.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) union said it could lead to a joint walk-out with the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union which is also balloting its members at SWT over industrial action on the same issue, with both votes ending on 17 March.
TSSA leader Gerry Doherty said a joint walk-out would halt services, including commuter routes into London's Waterloo station.
SWT operates routes through London, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Surrey, Dorset, Berkshire, Devon and Somerset.
momentum says...
11:34pm Mon 2 Mar 09
In the early 1990s recession firms in general held off from cutting staff, unless they had been making substancial losses.
This time round they firms are axing people as a premptive measure.
South West Trains makes millions in profits and thus its actions are morally unacceptable. The people they are making redundant are front line staff that are needed.