Festive Travel Disruption Expected Across Manchester as Unite Members Strike

Manchester is expected to be hit with severe travel disruption this festive season as Unite has announced strike action to take place from Friday 05 December to Sunday 07 December.

The action, which will impact routes including those to and from the city’s Christmas markets, has been called due to tram driver fatigue, with 320 KeolisAmey Metrolink Limited employees set to walk out over the weekend.

Unite members working at the Warwick Road South and Queens Road depots in the city will strike over current shift patterns, which see drivers working 450 hours over a 12-week period – resulting in patterns of 50 hours on followed by two days off.

The union has also claimed that drivers receive less rest days when compared to colleagues in other departments such as engineering and customer support.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said:

Driver fatigue is a major safety issue for both our members and passengers, but Metrolink management is not taking this seriously.

Metrolink is guilty of not acting on our member’s concerns. It can’t ignore this issue any longer. Our members will have Unite’s full support throughout this strike.

The strike action is expected to affect travel for a number of major events in the city, including the annual Manchester Christmas markets, concerts such as Ed Sheeran, Jamiroquai and Pete Tong, and the Manchester City vs Sunderland game on 6 December at the Etihad Stadium.

Unite regional officer Colin Hayden said:

Our members at Metrolink care about passenger safety and feel they have no choice but to walk out to make their voices heard.

We appreciate strike action will be frustrating for passengers, but it is entirely the fault of the employer. Metrolink must come back to the table with a meaningful solution to the fatigue and conditions issues to avoid this disruptive action.