Three days of industrial action by Caledonian MacBrayne staff working on Scotland’s west coast have begun this morning.
The move for action by RMT union members, over job security, pay and pensions, was confirmed earlier this week when talks broke down on Monday.
It involves two days of work to rule and a full day strike on Friday.
90% of RMT members, who account for half of the 14,000 CalMac workforce, voted for strike action.
General Secretary Mick Cash said: “It is extraordinary that rather than standing up for Scotland’s lifeline ferry services those who hold political power have resorted to ludicrous arguments about what does and doesn’t represent privatisation. That is a kick in the teeth for loyal and hard working staff who have given long hard years of service at CalMac.
“RMT members on CalMac rightly feel that they are caught in the crossfire of an unnecessary and damaging tendering battle that leaves jobs, conditions and pensions hanging by a thread. That is simply intolerable.
“RMT wants cast iron assurances and we want them now and we are committed to engaging in meaningful talks around that agenda as we kick off the first phase of industrial action.”
Scottish Ministers and company bosses have called for the action to be called off and for both sides to return to the negotiating table.
“We are disappointed that our dialogue with the RMT to avert industrial action this week has broken down but we now have in place plans to protect the vast majority of sailings tomorrow and Thursday,” said CalMac’s managing director, Martin Dorchester.
“The RMT are refusing to work overtime for the next two days potentially causing huge disruption to our services. Our staff have worked flat out to try and mitigate this industrial action as much as possible.”
“We have made several serious concessions to the RMT including a commitment on no compulsory redundancies in our bid submission in return for the RMT calling off the industrial action planned for this week. Unfortunately this was rejected. We were also willing to work together with both the RMT and TSSA over the coming days to agree a form of words in our collective agreements which would provide greater protection to employees around terms and conditions of employment but without success.”
The company are warning the public that they still face serious disruption when full RMT strike actions starts after midnight on Thursday for a 24 hour period.
“We will continue to do all we can to ensure that disruption to these lifeline service are kept to a minimum,” added Mr Dorchester.
“However, the travelling public needs to be aware that disruption is inevitable and that they should consider carefully whether their trip is essential before travelling later this week.”
“Our door remains open. We urge union representatives to re-enter dialogue with us as soon as possible and to give urgent consideration to our offer to avoid the what we believe will be unnecessary pain to the travelling public.”