Wightlink staff look set to strike for a total of 18 days between April and June, including the all important Easter weekend and Isle of Wight Festival weekend.
The RMT union has today (Friday) announced the intended strike dates as a result of an overwhelming majority of staff voting to take industrial action, as previously reported by Island Echo.
Staff are being told not to work on the following days:
- Friday 2nd April 2021 (Good Friday) through to and including Monday 5th April 2021 (Easter Monday)
- Friday 28th May 2021 (Bank holiday weekend)
- Monday 31st May 2021 (Bank holiday)
- Friday 4th June 2021 through to and including Sunday 6th June 2021
- Friday 11th June 2021 through to and including Sunday 13th 2021
- Friday 18th June 2021 through to and including Sunday 20th June 2021 (Isle of Wight Festival weekend)
- Friday 25th June 2021 through to and including Sunday 27th June 2021
Should the strikes go ahead, it is anticipated that there will be major disruption to services between Fishbourne-Portsmouth, Ryde Pier Head- Portsmouth and Yarmouth-Lymington.
The news comes just hours after Isle of Wight MP Bob Seely and Council Leader Dave Stewart called for Government intervention with regards to cross-Solent travel.
General Secretary of the RMT, Mick Cash, has said:
“This union will not tolerate the contempt towards our members, the processes and legislation set up for good industrial relations. As a result of the company’s failure to recognise the ballot mandate and their failure to enter into meaningful discussions to resolve this dispute, the union’s National Executive Committee has instructed that the following strike action takes place.”
UPDATE @ 17:00 – Wightlink has issued a statement in response to the news of strike action.
A spokesperson has said:
”Wightlink is consulting with its employees on how to protect jobs and ensure it survives the serious financial crisis caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Very few people are now travelling and passenger numbers are unlikely to return to normal in the near future. Other companies in the transport sector have already announced redundancies and pay cuts as a response to the severe financial situation in 2020, which is continuing.
“Our proposal covers changes to pensions, including a doubling of company pension contributions for the majority of colleagues, and flexible working to help Wightlink become a more sustainable business. This proposal avoids compulsory redundancies or pay cuts.
“We are disappointed the RMT has announced strike dates later in the year while formal consultations are still underway. We are confident we will be able to reach agreement with the union on these issues in the coming weeks”.
The festy weekend will be a damp squid, as festy won’t happen this year for sure.
Damp Squid??
Damp Squib.
We can only hope this backfires on Wightlink and businesses already suffering through no fault of their own via CV now choose not to use Wightlink where feasible and these selfish people lose their jobs over greed at such a hard time for business.
We all are suffering low wages now, but to deliberately harm others businesses is disgraceful at this crucial time.
Greed? Do you even know why they are striking? It’s because their pension rights are being destroyed, and their working conditions are being made worse. They even gave up 20% of their wages to allow Wightlink to continue trading during the first lockdown. It’s the company that’s greedy, not the workers.
Pepe, final salary pensions are too costly for mere labourers to attain. They are for the skilled sector, not some manual rope thrower or a tea boy.
The days when the working class thought it could live like the middle class has or is, going and never ever coming back. No more buying brand new five bed homes, holidays in exotic locations for months, buying a holiday home abroad, or having brand new cars and vans every two years. Things of the past now. We all have to realise those days were on credit, and that is to end now for the ‘jumped up’ manual workers.
What a breath of fresh air your post is Jason.
We have noticed this trend in common workmen, whom for the most part, swear, and are ignorant, but, because in the past, debt was easy to attain, they then thought themselves because they now could ‘afford’ (on credit) larger homes, holidays and vehicles, that they were ‘somehow’ worthy. Ignoring the ‘fact’ that their children were in fact, charity kept, all paid for by the state via child and working tax credits, and child allowance.
As you say final salary pensions were only for those elite in demanding roles in society, for those who had paid in for such, not for the common builders, and tradesmen who pay in little, yet take out more in tax credits etc. Certainly final salary pensions are not for the unskilled Ferry boat workers.
Just because the working class have gained a few pieces of worthless paper, after doing a days course on Health and Safety, Fire risk, or some other ‘training’ which an adult Chimpanzee could pass, they think they are now educated and ‘worth’ more.
They aren’t, and the huge flood of unemployment soon to hit the UK will show them just how worthless and easily replaceable many of these trumped up positions really are.
With now no EU law to protect them, as Turkey’s voted for Christmas, the UK will now start to rebalance the playing field to where it ought to be.
My man!
The reality of not having a good career bites hard.
Rope Thrower..?? Living in the past , never saw anyone with ropes on my last Wightlink voyage… electronic now.. means another few jobs gone though…
What I do no understand, they build all these robotic type machines to do the work of people, so what is going to happen to all the thousands of people that lose their job because of computerization ? Electric self drive vehicles… good bye millions of truck drivers.. taxi drivers, etc… oh and again, think of the 8 hour plus queue’s waiting to recharge vehicles… Hoping I will be gone by that time.. as it will be hell… slowly stopping selling diesel and normal petrol.. banned building more or selling.. from 2030..
A tunnel would not have strikes, delays from bad weather… only delays from drivers..
Fear not, a massive huge recession is coming soon. A mother of one, as all this QE is making currency worthless. Hence bitcoin is where the clever money is now running to.
The world as we have know it will change rapidly soon, and not for the better.
Too many f reeloaders from elsewhere b reeding us into their crime, o vercrowding and poverty.
The future is dire, those living will within a few years, envy those who have already passed over.
Jobs started to fall when the steam engine was invented
Well said Pepe.
You haven’t a clue
Shame they didn’t strike during the second wave of the pandemic!
We might have avoided the current nightmare situation
Sack them all and get a fixed link finally sorted and do all the Islanders a favour
Brainless
red funnel every time for me
RMT seem out of touch with reality. Hardly any companies still have a final salary pension scheme and certainly not for new employees. Exception is usually the public sector.
They hardly run anyway, so it won’t be a loss!
I can not see just what the RMT are likely to get out of strike action in the covid difficult times as we will not be out of this mess for at least 6 months and more likely a year.
Guess who will pay for their demands, The Passengers…
What demands? Staff are only asking things to stay the same. Its management that are demanding they are entitled to more profit at the expense of workers.
If this goes ahead then my job will be put in jeopardy. Thanks Sh!think!!!
Its a pity they didnt do it a month ago and stop all the dirty mainlanders coming over . The festival wont happen in june
Explain yourself, dirty mainlanders
Most Caulkheads don’t know what Soap is!
Still not explained yourself ,what’s wrong with mainlanders????,they only contribute to the i o w economy.and what do you describe yourself as.
COVID Carriers
It was a strategic operation by mainland garlic and tomato growers to come and destabilise the prosperous local growers ability to produce. This is war!
I’ve never heard so much rubbish. Some of those ‘dirty mainlanders’ as you call them have sustained us through this pandemic. Where do you think our food, medications, and everything else that is vital to our existence come from. It doesn’t suddenly appear as if by magic.
There are doctors and nurses taking care of us in St Mary’s that come from the mainland.
No doubt a lot of the ferry staff live on the mainland. There are people here who travel to the mainland for work. What are they supposed to do, live on fresh air.
It’s like the little boy who broke the window ‘ it wasn’t me, it was him’
I cannot believe some of the infantile comments I read sometimes. Grow up!
Was meaning the second home owners that they aloud over
I think people are referring to non essential journeys to holiday camps/hotels etc. Second home owners and the booze cruise folk, not genuine key workers for which we are all grateful to.
I think the write means ‘dirty’ by bringing the virus over here, we had none until one chap came across on hovercraft the first time ( mainlander ) then when we were tier 1 before Christmas those across the water came over to use our pubs and give us more covid in exchange.. Thank you !
By the way there was an awful lot more foot traffic going to the mainland early December to go shopping then there were coming onto the island for the pubs. Hate to burst the bubble of blame but it was more down to us than them.
Does not matter
Festival will not happen this year, I doubt Easter will be happening either!
Shitelink
Wow so articulate
I will be very surprised if the Festival happens this year.
A fixed link please.
They should go on strike now and for two months.
A fixed link please.
Why is their sea staff employed from the Channel Islands, is that to save Wight Link paying Health Taxes
Reckon your spot on there Gary .
They won’t be getting my support
Result
A fixed link please. By all means keep the ferries running and let them compete for a change. Also, for the few Islanders who don’t want to let go and continue to travel on them. The rest of us would at least have a choice.