About 700 train conductors working for Arriva Northern, which has seen almost a month of lightning 24-hour stoppages since last January, are being urged to reject the company's latest pay and conditions offer.
Leaders of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said yesterday that the proposed deal was "seriously worse" than previous proposals from the embattled company. Bob Crow, the union's general secretary, said the 4% increase had been stripped of backdating, cutting its value effectively to 1%. "This is the only dispute I can remember in which the pay offer has gone down every time we've got round the table with the employer," he said.
After a disastrous year in 2001, when driver shortages saw Arriva replace hundreds of rail services with buses for six months, the past 12 months have seen thousands of disgruntled passengers forgo trains. And the company suffered the humiliation of being labelled Britain's "worst train service". The 24-hour strikes have have been targeted at key travelling days, and the fortnight of Manchester's Commonwealth Games.
The dispute followed a hefty pay rise to train drivers. Arriva's subsequent offer to raise conductors' basic pay from £15,500 to £16,763, fell far short of the drivers' increase.
