Southern Rail strikes set for Christmas

Southern Rail’s workers union has announced further strikes, this time over the Christmas period.

They will be striking for the three days up until Christmas Day and again for another three days from midnight on New Years Eve until the 2nd of January.

Strikes from Southern Rail have been going on for months in a long term dispute over the imminent changing role of train conductors and drivers on board Southern Rail trains.

Southern have proposed that conductors will no longer be in charge of closing train doors, and that this responsibility will be passed on to drivers.

The role of the conductor will be changing to more of an onboard supervisor role.

The union’s issue with this is that it is cutting down the jobs that the of the conductor, and is worried that it will eventually become obsolete.

In an interview with the BBC, a spokesman for Southern Rail said:

“Not content with causing months of misery, the RMT has now hit a new low and is determined to cancel Christmas for the travelling public.”

“These latest strikes will not just hit families wanting to get home for Christmas but also the shops and businesses for whom Christmas is their busiest time. These strikes are spiteful, vindictive and pointless given the majority of conductors have now signed up to the new on-board role.”

It seems that the RMT and Southern are no closer to finding a resolution, and that there is a general consensus that the strikes are getting increasingly more tedious for commuters and both parties involved in the conflict.

The strike dates are below

• 00:01 Tuesday 22 November to 23:59 Wednesday 23 November
• 00:01 Tuesday 6 December to 23:59 Thursday 8 December
• 00:01 Thursday 22 December to 23:59 Saturday 24 December
• 00:01 Saturday 31 December to 23:59 Monday 2 January