UK: Trade unions and industry leaders agreed on March 18 to set up a Rail Industry Coronavirus Joint Forum. This will engage at a senior level to support a collective industry response and help to ensure that the railway can continue to operate during the coronavirus crisis.
On the same day the Department for Transport and Unite, GMB, Prospect, Nautilus International, RMT, ASLEF, TSSA, BALPA and TUC held the first in a series of ministerial phone calls to discuss the impact of coronavirus on the transport sector and its workers.
In a joint statement, the government and unions ‘reiterated the importance of working together at this crucial time for the country to ensure that all areas of the industry and all the people working within it have the appropriate support needed over the coming period.’
The government and the unions ‘underlined the vital role that transport workers play in keeping the country moving’, and ministers ‘recognised the importance of maintaining worker safety and support for businesses’, the parties said.
Ministers would work with the unions to support transport staff ‘through not only the immediate challenges but also the issues that will affect the sector once the country has overcome this pandemic’.
