Hopes fade as rail strike looms

A MAJOR rail strike will begin tonight unless South West Trains and the RMT agree an increasingly unlikely last-minute deal.

Up to 200,000 commuters on some of the busiest lines into London face days of disruption from midnight.

The union says the strikes scheduled for tomorrow, Friday, Monday and Tuesday will go ahead unless the company improves its pay offer of 15% over three years.

Vernon Hince, the RMT's acting general secretary, said the union will do 'everything possible' to avert the strike. Urgent talks were being held at SWT headquarters in central London today.

Some routes into Waterloo will be reduced to a standstill if the strikes go ahead, the company warns. Stagecoach-owned SWT says the action will cost it £4 million in lost revenue and cause mass disruption as many people return to work from an extended Christmas break.

Senior officials at the RMT, the rail industry's largest union, rejected an improved three-year, 15% deal for station staff and guards last week. The employer also offered a two-hour cut in the working week.

A last-minute breakthrough cannot be ruled out though as the RMT has called off a number of recent threatened strikes the day before they were scheduled to start.

However, this time the situation is complicated by a dispute over the demotion of union activist Greg Tucker from driver to ticket inspector. The RMT wants disciplinary action dropped, which SWT is refusing to do. SWT managing director Andrew Haines said: 'This was an excellent offer which we made in an attempt to save our passengers from further disruption.

'By rejecting it the RMT has shown beyond any doubt that this is not a dispute over pay, it is a dispute over our disciplining of union representatives.'

The union wants a similar pay deal to that offered to drivers who were given a 7.6% deal over 18 months. The 2,000 station staff and guards were originally offered about 4% for the same period.

Mr Hince said: 'Members want a fair settlement along the lines of what has been offered to drivers. As for the disciplinary measures, we cannot accept our members' representatives being singled out for unfair treatment.' South West Trains has offered non-driver staff 'the equivalent' of 15% over three years in the form of a four% rise in April, a 3.6% increase in October and an inflation-linked rise in April next year. SWT says that, taken with the twohour cut in the working week, this represents a 15% deal.

However, the union says its members deserve a 'pure' pay offer of that level. The company says the drivers' 7.6% pay rise over 18 months is partly based on agreements over flexible working times.

The union says the pay deal and the disciplinary dispute must be treated separately and that the company is tying them together.