There was a sharp cold at Piccadilly Station this morning — but it wasn’t the first thing you’d have noticed on entering the terminus.
That would have been the sight of a grinch on a picket line. Then, it would have been the noise, or lack of it.
Few trains pulled into the station, and only a handful of passengers walked in and out of the entrances. The quiet was brought on by strike action from members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) union, who are staging the first of four days of walk-outs in a row over pay and conditions.
READ MORE: What the rail strikes mean for you as workers walk out for four days this week
All in all, the action this week applies to staff working for Network Rail and rail operators under the ‘DfT mandate’. It will be complemented by Network Rail-only action from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27 — to hit engineering works.
There’s also further action for both January 3, 4, 6, and 7. It’s led to fears that there could be travel chaos over the festive season and New Year.
Among the striking workers at the Piccadilly picket was one man dressed up as the Grinch, who famously stole Christmas. Earlier in the day, the Union’s boss, Mick Lynch, told reporters that ‘we don’t like disrupting the public’.
“So we do apologise and we hope that people can amend their plans and get to where they need to go during this period, but they can be assured that we’re working to try and get an agreement so that we can end this dispute,” Mr Lynch added.
“Many people of course that are travelling are also suffering similar things – health workers, postal workers, people working in all sorts of industries and sectors who are suffering the same issues of low pay, conditions being stripped out, and attacks on their job security.
“So if we can stick together across the working class we can maybe get some settlements that they can support and we can get back to work and run society in a better way.”
Mr Lynch added that strikes could extend well into 2023. He continued: “We want to get a deal but at the moment, there is no deal in sight.
“So we’ve got the schedule down at the moment, which is running for the next four weeks. We will review that at the end of that if there’s no settlement on the table and we’ll decide what our next steps are, but at the moment there is no settlement to be had.”
RMT’s Manchester South branch will be manning the picket line from 7am today to 3pm this afternoon (December 13). At the city’s other major hub, Victoria, members will be standing outside from 8am to 2pm.
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