Rail union threat to festival of rugby

YOUR Christmas break hobbled by a British Airways strike vote?

Your Christmas post held up by industrial action? How resigned we have become to strikes timed to cause the maximum inconvenience to the most people. Now the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) has called for a walkout on ScotRail on Saturday, 13 March, the day of the Six Nations Scotland-England rugby clash in Edinburgh, an event requiring the mobilisation of some 65,000 people. But not, it seems, on the publicly owned railway network.

The walkout will be bracketed by stoppages on Saturday, 20 February, and Monday, 1 March, doubtless accompanied by protestations from the RMT that it does not really mean to inconvenience the public. The opposite is the truth. Maximum inconvenience is exactly what its strikes are meant to cause.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

ScotRail says it still hopes to operate more then nine in ten services during the walkouts, after training more than 200 managers to stand in for strikers. But plans to run extra services for the Calcutta Cup match are now under review. The rabid language of RMT leader Bob Crow describing these efforts by ScotRail – "scandalous attitude to safety… shabby attempts… scab army" – give the game away. This is not reasoned behaviour, but a hissy fit by a bully who thrives on punching the faces of those who depend on rail. The winners? Car salesmen.