Talks between Southern’s owner, Govia Thameslink Railway, and Aslef began on Wednesday morning, with hopes that the escalating row and the extreme disruption will push the two sides into some form of agreement.
Southern rail passengers are facing more misery with no trains running at all for a second consecutive day as the drivers’ union and the company started talks at Acas to seek a breakthrough in the long-running dispute. Drivers from Aslef have continued their strike, with a third day planned for Friday.
However, relations between GTR and the RMT union, representing conductors, may have been further damaged after the RMT leader, Mick Cash, left Acas, claiming to have been “barred” from talks.
Cash said GTR was fully aware on Tuesday night he would be attending talks, but that he was told on arrival by the company that he would not be allowed to take part.
He said: “RMT is furious at the complete contempt that has been shown to us by Southern rail this morning, which leaves us in a state of limbo when we should all be around the table thrashing out the issues that have led to the current action.
“Our members were expecting discussions to take place today and instead we have had the door slammed in our faces. That is no way to rebuild the confidence of the workforce in the Southern management and the talks process and it is no way to reach a solution, which is what the public are crying out for.”
But GTR said it still hoped to talk to Cash, although only Aslef had been invited by Acas to discuss the current strike by drivers. Nick Brown, GTR’s chief operating officer, said: “We hope today’s talks with the Aslef leadership are productive. I have spoken with the general secretary of the RMT this morning and informed him we’d be happy to meet him at Acas later today to talk about any new proposals he has to try and end the conductors’ dispute and I also asked him to call off their programme of strikes planned for Christmas and new year.”
