MORE members of the public blame the Government for the current rail
dispute than either of the parties involved, according to an opinion
poll taken for the Labour Party.
The NOP sample of nearly one thousand interviewees found that 40% hold
the Government responsible for the disruption, 18% Railtrack, and 18%
the rail union. Labour said it commissioned the poll because nobody else
had undertaken one.
The Shadow Transport Secretary, Mr Frank Dobson, said: ''This shows
that the public don't trust the Government on this issue either.''
He said that the continued ministerial intervention showed that either
Ministers misunderstood the object of the negotiations or they ''are
trying to pick a fight''.
He called on Transport Secretary John MacGregor to give Railtrack the
freedom to negotiate and reach a settlement.
Mr Bob Horton, Railtrack's chairman, and Mr Jimmy Knapp, RMT union
general secretary, are to meet for the first time since the signal
workers began their series of strikes over pay.
The talks were set up yesterday by Mr Greville Janner, chairman of the
Commons Employment Select Committee, which questioned both men on the
eve of today's fourth weekly one-day stoppage.
Earlier British Rail's chairman, Sir Bob Reid, had appealed to the
signal workers to suspend their series of 24-hour strikes, due to
continue for a further two Wednesdays, before being escalated to two
days a week. Suspension would allow peace talks to proceed in a
''reasonable atmosphere,'' Sir Bob said.
BR is understood to be frustrated that, while it no longer negotiates
for the 4600 signalling grades, it loses #10m a day in revenue for each
stoppage.
A Downing Street spokesman said the Government's view was there was no
good reason for continuing the damaging strikes. Employment Secretary
David Hunt ''deplored'' RMT's rejection of Railtrack's ''constructive
offer''.
The gulf between the two sides remains vast, with the RMT demanding an
11% interim increase for past productivity concessions, and Railtrack
insisting that any offer must be entirely self-financing by way of fresh
efficiency measures.
Railtrack maintains its offer is worth between 13 and 16% on basic
rates and that 75% of signal staff stand to gain improved overall
earnings.
The RMT, however, says Railtrack's ''rehash'' is worth only 3.5% --
''half of what we were offered three weeks ago'' and would need to be
paid for by way of increased productivity.
Meanwhile, today BR hopes to run more than the 10% of its normal
15,000 passenger services it managed during last Wednesday's stoppage.
But despite this planned extended use of signal supervisors and
managers the bulk of the network will be paralysed.
ScotRail said last night that it hoped to operate the same level of
services as in the previous week. Among those running will be an hourly
service between Glasgow and Edinburgh, beginning at 6.30am.
Other routes hoping to operate despite the fourth one-day strike by
signalmen are the Edinburgh to North Berwick, Bathgate, and Fife Circle.
Glasgow services to Greenock West, Ayr, Largs, Ardrossan and Paisley
Canal will also run.
BR sell-off costs3
Sides persuaded to meet6
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