Generally speaking, TSSA are thought of to represent the grades who, if they went on strike, wouldn't cause much of an operational impact to the railway. Membership rates are typically lower amongst eligible grades than RMT or ASLEF achieve - and with zero disrespect to my colleagues, the trains don't usually stop running if the booking office is shut; or train planning aren't writing next month's engineering amendments.
Today and Tomorrow blow that fallacy clear out of the water. Control staff striking can and are making an impact on behalf of those roles whose withdrawal of labour aren't strongly felt.
There are significant risks running a train service with control so short-handed; so the number of routes operated needs to be culled down. The number of trains on those routes at any one time needs to be reduced. The number of staff and units working the services that remain need to be drawn down to a bare minimum. With limited control staff on duty, there aren't as many pairs of eyes making sure units don't exceed their fuel ranges; aren't as many to book taxis to get traincrew into the right places for their work; aren't as many to keep customers up to date during any disruption or ultimately, make arrangements to get them home when the trains can't.
I am genuinely sorry that there is disruption tomorrow. To a man person, none of my control colleagues wants to be causing this much disruption to our customers - we are all passionate about our jobs; and while it may not seem it to the armchair critics, in normal times we do everything in our power and more to respond as well as we can to disruption. You don't hear the tales of control doing a great job because when we do it isn't noticed. But these aren't normal times any more. None of us has had a pay rise since early 2019; we're not listened to during consultations despite our obvious expertise; train operating companies (jointly) can't give any reassurances over what will happen to TOC Control staff under GBR, and all it's heralding of eliminating duplication of work. But above all we can give teeth and a voice to those in much lower-paid TSSA-represented roles - Booking Office Clerks, Train Planning Assistants, Delay Attributors, Social Media team; who are really struggling and in many cases openly facing redundancy if this industrial action does not succeed. A line eventually has to be drawn and a stand taken. Today and Tomorrow we stand on that line.
