‘Absolute joke’ – Cheltenham chaos with train strikes to affect festival goers travelling from around country
CHELTENHAM FESTIVAL faces chaos after the latest train strikes were announced.
Festival goers will see their schedule getting stirred after RMT announced industrial action across all railways on March 16.
The scheduled strike takes place on the third day of Cheltenham festival, which runs from the 14th until the 17th.
And horse racing fans were not at all pleased with the development.
One tweeted: “An absolute joke.”
Another posted: “Rail strikes on the Thursday of the Cheltenham Festival… Fun.”
A third wrote: “Rail strikes over Cheltenham week. Sound.”
Last year, 280,000 horse racing fans descended on Cheltenham for the top class action.
An official RMT statement read: “@RMTunion announces further strikes and overtime ban in national rail dispute
“Rail union RMT, will take nationwide strike action across the railways on 16 March after employers refused to put any new offers on the table.
“@RMTunion which represents 40,000 workers across Network Rail and 14 train operators rejected offers from employers last week, as they did not meet the needs of members on pay, job security or working conditions.
“Rail workers will now launch a programme of strike action and Network Rail members will commence an overtime ban effecting maintenance and operations work.
” @RMTunion is seeking an unconditional offer from rail operators and Network Rail.
“RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘Rail employers are not being given a fresh mandate by the government to offer our members a new deal on pay, conditions and job security.
“‘Therefore, our members will now take sustained & targeted industrial action over the next few months’.”