RMT News

RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that the driver-only operation proposed on East West represented a significant risk to safety and the current Train Manager roles at Chiltern. “RMT members have voted overwhelmingly to take a principled stand against the watering down of safety on the rail network. “It is time that Chiltern management took our members concerns seriously,” he said.

The dispute is about protecting hard-won agreements and preventing the erosion of terms and conditions. RMT General Secretary, Eddie Dempsey said: “Our members are not asking for special treatment or unreasonable improvements. They are standing up to defend the terms and conditions they already have.

RAIL UNION RMT has suspended strike action by conductors planned for Sunday October 4 on Transpennine Express. The action was suspended for further talks after the company agreed to return to productivity negotiations. However, further action planned for the remaining Sundays in October remain in place. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that the union will remain in dispute until a satisfactory agreement can be reached with the employer.

The three main rolling stock companies (ROSCOs) who own over 70 per cent of Britain’s trains Angel, Eversholt and Porterbrook paid out a record £390 million in dividends to their shareholders in 2025. At the same time the three chief ROSCO executives pocketed £3.4 million between them in just one year. In total, the ROSCOs have paid out £2.4 billion over the last 10 years and £3.4 billion since 2010.

Members working as mobile night supervisors on the Mitie contract voted unanimously for strike action after the company installed intrusive inward facing cameras in vans for a ‘trial period’. But Mitie has made clear that it had no plans to remove the dashcams at the end of the trial period claiming that they were for improving the safety of drivers and other road users.

A meeting has been arranged by our National Industrial Organising Conference of Engineering Grades, in line with this years’ AGM decision, to coordinate our Engineering Grades representatives nationally on the matter of new technology.

RMT members will take 24-hour action on Saturday October 10 and Saturday October 17 after the company refused to provide guarantees over the safety critical role of the second person on board proposed East West Rail services. RMT general secretary Eddie Dempsey said that the driver-only operation proposed on East-West represented a significant risk to safety and the current Train Manager roles. “The actions of Chiltern management to not take these concerns seriously is totally unacceptable.

Under rail privatisation Railway Rolling Stock Companies (ROSCOs), which leases trains to the network at hugely inflated prices, became a byword for profiteering and currently remain in place. Last year dividends paid out by ROSCO Angel Trains to its owners reached £111 million, while another Eversholt, owned by a company registered in the Cayman Islands, paid out £200 million.

The union has welcomed the commitment by the government to launch Great British Railways, which will nationalise the network and bring track and trains back together under public ownership. However, thousands of cleaners, gate line, security staff, infrastructure maintenance, renewal and engineering workers, are being left behind due to being employed by private contractors. This is despite the Labour government's commitment to undertake ‘the biggest wave of insourcing in a generation’.

Outsourced RMT members on TransPennine contracts working for Bidvest Noonan and Rail Gourmet are striking against low pay and in-work poverty. Outsourced workers on another publicly owned contract LNER who work for Gate Solutions will also be taking strike action next month at Doncaster, Edinburgh Waverley, King’s Cross, Leeds, Newcastle and York starting with 24-hour action from October 16.