Crawley’s Labour Councillors have been criticised by the Conservatives for “putting politics before people”. This followed the debating of a motion at Crawley Borough Council calling upon the Council to publicly condemn the rail strike and for the RMT to call off their remaining scheduled strikes.
Rail union the RMT announced in late September a series of strikes covering five weeks from October to early December. This week has seen Crawley rail severely inconvenienced as the second of the five strikes kicks in.
The motion tabled by Conservative group leader Cllr Duncan Crow, was defeated by 19 Labour votes with all 17 Conservative Councillors supporting it. Cllr Crow said, “There is nothing that justifies any strike action that causes such disruption to the travelling public. For Crawley’s Labour Councillors to strongly support this targeting of Crawley’s rail passengers is appalling. By always supporting industrial action that targets the public, Labour are putting politics before people”.
Cllr Crow, who wants to see a negotiated settlement to the dispute between the RMT and Southern Rail, added, “Labour Councillors who spoke in debate in support of the rail strike were coming up with all sorts of bogus reasons to justify the strikes, including that a majority of commuters support the disruption being forced upon them. What is clear is that Crawley’s Labour Councillors will always back the unions under any circumstances, regardless of the cost to everyone else, whereas the Conservatives take a more pragmatic and less political approach. “
The motion debated and voted on at the Full Council meeting at Crawley Borough Council on Wednesday 19th October was as follows:
"On 22nd of September 2016, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and
Transport Workers (RMT) announced a series of rail strikes affecting
Southern Rail trains, in five blocks covering fourteen days. The strike times announced were as follows:
· 00:01 Tuesday 11 October to 23:59 Thursday 13 October
· 00:01 Tuesday 18 October to 23:59 Thursday 20 October
· 00:01 Thursday 3 November to 23:59 Saturday 5 November
· 00:01 Tuesday 22 November to 23:59 Wednesday 23 November
· 00:01 Tuesday 6 December to 23:59 Thursday 8 December
This Council condemns this series of strikes called by the RMT which will cause a major impact to Crawley rail passengers. Therefore the Council instructs the Chief Executive to write to the General Secretary of the RMT to convey the Council’s view and to ask the RMT to call off their strikes.”