HISTORIC PRESS RELEASE : Morton Invites RMT to Explain its Actions [June 2001]

The press release issued by the Strategic Rail Authority on 14 June 2001.

Sir Alastair Morton, Chairman of the Strategic Rail Authority, has invited the RMT to come and explain to him why they should be entitled to determine safety issues by industrial action.

“If the RMT is claiming that their industrial dispute with train operators is about safety, I very much doubt that they are justified in planning to strike. There is a well-established procedure for putting safety propositions before the appropriate authority, Railway Safety, and they, not the RMT or the employers, are responsible for any resulting changes in the regulations.

RMT has not gone the proper route for a safety issue before setting out to make rail passengers’ lives miserable.

I have asked Vernon Hince, Deputy General Secretary of the RMT, if he will come and explain to me if he believes his union can take over the judgement on such an issue”.