Travel disruption looms over as Avanti West Coast workers vote to strike
Travel disruption continues to loom over the UK as hundreds of members of the TSSA union working for Avanti West Coast have voted in favour of walking out.
The union announced today the results of the ballot– which was called on 10 June over pay, conditions and job security as the cost-of-living crisis continues to bite workers.
No date has been announced yet.
TSSA members reported that 86.1 per cent of the employees balloted voted in favour of industrial action, while 91.6 per cent said they were in favour of industrial action short of strike.
“This is a strong outcome and one the company can ill afford to ignore,” said TSSA’s general secretary Manuel Cortes.
“Ministers should take note – the ballot result at Avanti is only the beginning.”
An Avanti West Coast spokesperson said the company was disappointed by the decision but, if a strike were to go ahead, it would not have a significant impact on services.
“We’re disappointed the TSSA union called this ballot, which we think is premature, and we remain open to talks with them,” they told City PM
“The impact of any TSSA action will be extremely limited and we do not expect our services to be materially affected.”
TSSA members work along the West Coast Mainline in both customer-facing and platform duty roles.
The union is currently conducting separate ballots over strike action at several UK rail operators, including Network Rail, Greater Anglia and Southeastern.
Network Rail and Southeastern’s ballot will close on 11 July, meaning that a potential strike could start as soon as 25 July.
The strike is the latest industrial action of what many consider the UK’s “summer of discontent,” after tens of thousands of railway workers have been walking out over the last 10 days.
The country was brought to a standstill after more 40,000 members of the union RMT went on strike on 21, 23 and 25 June.
RMT railway workers were joined by Tube workers – who took it to the streets on 21 June bringing London to a standstill – as well as by members of other unions, such as Unite and Aslef.
Aslef members working for Croydon Tramlink staged a two-day strike which ended at midnight on Wednesday.