As you know the rail unions have balloted to take strike action to defend their pay, jobs and conditions of service. You will also know if you have ever taken industrial action yourself that it is not a step that people take lightly. It is stressful and in the short term costs money you can ill afford. People only ever take strike action if they feel their backs are to the wall. The Labour Party should always support workers who are in this position. Barry Gardiner’s piece in Labourlist is very pertinent. In this spirit your Executive Committee sent the following message to the Labour Party Leadership and the rail Unions today.

‘The Thirsk and Malton Constituency Labour Party Executive believes it is the duty of the Labour Party to support the industrial action that RMT and ASLEF members have voted to take to defend their pay, jobs and conditions of service. Ultimately this is what the Labour Party is for and given that the Labour Party itself is currently in no position to defend the pay, jobs and conditions of rail workers the least we can do is give our unequivocal support to their efforts to defend themselves. We call on the Labour Party Leadership to do likewise.’

Our Constituency will be represented on the RMT picket line in York on 21^st June. We would ask you to consider how you could best support the rail workers in this dispute.