There is the potential for more disruption on the West Midlands Metro but this time its nothing to do with the trams but staff are set to vote on taking strike action following the rejection of a pay offer which has been described as “insulting”. The ballot for strike action will open on Monday 8th August and will be open for two weeks.
The latest pay offer made to staff on West Midlands Metro (which was rejected by 67% of staff) was as follows:
Tram Crew
- Starting salary for tram crew would increase from £19,773 to £21,500
- Salary of tram crew with 12 months service would rise from £21,939 to £25,250
Other staff
- Would receive a rise of 5.25%
In an article on the Express and Star website, it is stated that tram crew with more than 12 months service are asking for a wage of £27,000 meaning the offers as shown above fall short of this demand.
West Midlands Metro have emailed their staff outlining more information of the offer made: “I am writing to confirm the results of the pay ballot and am disappointed to share with you that the outcome was a vote against the offer. However, it was pleasing to see that more colleagues were in favour of the proposal than in the previous ballots. I want to take this opportunity to reassure you that the proposal I shared with you is the very best offer that can be made to ensure that the increase is fair and proportionate for all MML (Midland Metro Limited) colleagues. It is also worth noting that the proposal provided all colleagues with an increase which is above the current national average and was endorsed by Unite the Union.”
Previous communications between WMM and their staff said that they had studied other similar sized light rail operations (Blackpool and Sheffield – the only others to have the separate role of conductor) which showed that on average drivers received £25,000 and conductors £21,000 after the successful completion of training. This email also said that the increase for new tram crew would be 8.7% and for those with 12 months or more service it would be 15.1%.
The ballot paper being sent to members of the Unite union makes it clear that a yes vote will mean they move to formal action ballot whilst no means the offer being made will be accepted.
If they strike it will be a kick in the teeth for customers who have endured hardly any service since June/July 2021 when the route was cut to facilitate extension works then from November 2021 when trams were pulled to cracks,
Services are just about back to normal this planned strike is poorly timed and bosses should be blunt and say the customers won’t appreciate any strike action when MM have let customers down with no service for hardly a year.
Isn’t that the whole point of a strike, to be an inconvenience? And to be fair to them, it’s not the staff that have been the reason the customers have been let down
Been brewing a few years to this
And its not just the about pay .
Driver’s and CSRs / CEOs
Get treated like there just somthink underfoot
while they have to suffer all the hard work .
While the commonwealth games have been on the trams have been Full to capacity at times not even allowing just one more passinger on .
But it’s been down to just one conductor to try and inch his/ her way along the crowed tram .
Yet The management have not allowed two conductors on ( one each end ) to ease the work load .
Fancy working I’m hot stuffy full tram all day .
Again management refuse to listern to the staff .
I say strike , there on a low wage , and get treated like …..
^^ This absolutely. The sector needs to start paying competitive renumeration & decent conditions that actually reflect the level of responsibility and demands placed on staff. Year on year conditions across various networks seem to have got worse and worse (dreadful management, dreadful rosters, fairly horrific abuse from customers left unchallenged to boot). The exodus within sector should be ringing alarm bells to many good people left already.
I’m sorry, but I think this is sheer naked greed on the part of the crews. How can an increase of 15% (FIFTEEN per cent!) be described as insulting? Their demand of 23% was simply ludicrous. Perhaps MML should do what Ronald Reagan did with the air traffic controllers: sack the lot, and then take on immigrants who would be glad to have such well-paid work.
5.25% isn’t a lot to everyone else apart from tram crew though. That would be everyone else in the business, so maybe that’s where the numbers have come from. I think I’d be annoyed if I were offered a third of what another department in the same company were being offered as well
I think its difficult to have sympathy with their demands when the rest of us get 1 or 2 percent if we are lucky and aren;t in unions!