News

Merseyrail today called on the London based RMT Executive Committee to cancel its proposed strike on Sunday 23 July, the last day of The Open golf tournament at Royal Birkdale. And to call it off by Wednesday 19 July to ensure the train company, event organisers and security services in the city have enough time to put other arrangements in place.

It is disgraceful that the RMT Executive should deliberately target major events that the city region has worked so hard to bring to Merseyside.

Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde

Managing Director

Merseyrail managing director, Jan Chaudhry-van der Velde said:

‘It is disgraceful that the RMT Executive should deliberately target major events that the city region has worked so hard to bring to Merseyside. As we saw with Aintree Saturday in April, the RMT Executive thinks nothing of doing down the Liverpool city region in its proudest moments. Only one out of the 20 members of the RMT National Executive Committee covers the Liverpool city region. They don’t care about the economic and reputational damage that they cause.

‘This industrial action is nothing to do with safety. If it was, the RMT would never have agreed a staffing deal last month with Great Western Railway, which sees new trains introduced, some with guards on them and some operating only with drivers.’
There are no compulsory redundancies in this dispute. All permanent Merseyrail guards who would like to stay in the business can do, with their salaries protected.