BRITAIN: The dispute between South West Trains and the Rail Maritime and Transport (RMT) union threatened to escalate last night, spelling more misery for hundreds of thousands of commuters.
The train company claimed to have run one-third of its normal services yesterday on the first day of the RMT's latest 48-hour strike. And South West Trains vowed to carry on using managers to replace striking staff until the industrial action was rendered irrelevant and no longer impacted on customers.
The managing director, Mr Andrew Haines, declared: "We are determined that never again should the RMT hold our passengers to ransom. We cannot sit idly by while the RMT pursues its political agenda.
"We must take action to give our passengers the best possible service and our managers have proved themselves more than willing to go that extra mile. If the RMT refuses to call off these damaging strikes, we will continue to run more and more services each strike day," he said.
However, the decision to bring in managers to replace striking guards and other staff saw the company accused of playing "Russian roulette" with passenger safety and prompted union members on the picket line at London's Waterloo station to demand a week-long strike on South West Trains in addition to the actions already planned.
Mr Greg Tucker, an RMT activist at the centre of the action - who was demoted from his job as a driver following a safety-related incident - said: "SWT seems to be intent on doing all they can to break the strike and destroy the union. Our members are more determined than ever and many are now calling for week-long strikes."
This prompted SWT to accuse the union of being "strike happy" and to demand its return to the negotiating table. However, RMT's acting general secretary, Mr Vernon Hince, accused the company of refusing to attend fresh negotiations. "It is now crystal clear that despite statements to the contrary, SWT has no intention of seeking an amicable solution to this dispute," he said.
As the war of words raged - and with 1,100 of South West Trains from the south coast into London cancelled - the Prime Minister, Mr Blair, came out against the continuing strike action.
A spokesman said Mr Blair believed the strikes could not be justified and that the travelling public should not be inconvenienced.
"Whatever peoples' grievances, whatever the differences that exist between management and the workforce, they should be resolved in a way that doesn't mean that thousands of people cannot get to work, or that those that can have to struggle through difficult conditions," he said.
The Liberal Democrats estimated the possible cost of the ongoing industrial actions across the rail network at £149 million.