1994 signalmen's strike

[Mickey]

I took part in the 1994 signalman's strike when I was a resident signalman at Camden Road on the north London line and we did eventually get a fairly substantial pay rise after the strike was over. The strike was lead by Jimmy Knapp the then leader of the RMT although some changes were agreed between the union and British Rail management to end the strike. One of the noticeable changes that was made was to our working hours (it may have been reduced to a 39hrs week after the strike?) when new rosters were brought in for all signalmen along with the abolition of a number of old signalmen's allowances from B.R. days that included 'travelling time' for relief signalmen to and from a s/box and there home station in exchange for a higher rate of pay amongst other changes.

From memory...

One change that was implemented after the strike was all s/boxes that were up until then 'three man s/boxes' throughout British Rail became four man boxes thus allowing extra days or nights off for the four signalmen at a particular box over the course of a four week cycle of the roster. All the old signalmen's allowances were abolished which in the case of relief signalmen was mainly there 'travelling time' where a relief signalman would 'in theory' sign on duty at his 'home station' first and to then travel to the box that he signed and worked on his area and then after finishing his turn of duty at that box he would then travel back from that box to his home station again to sign off duty 'in theory' before going home which could amount to a fair bit of money over a week plus also the so called 'Isolation allowance' was abolished at boxes that had either the 25.000kv AC overhead wires outside the box and or the 750 volts DC third rail outside the box such as at my box at Camden Road on the north London line that particular allowance was abolished in return for a overall higher rate of pay amongst other changes.

Another significant change quite possibly to do with the 1994 strike was two or three months after the end of the strike 'everyone' working on the railways at that time was told that from about September or October(?) of that year the weekly Thursday payday on the railway which was the normal payday through the B.R. years was to be abolished and in future everyone would be paid every four weeks on a Friday into a bank account of there choosing. Also from memory coinciding with the implementing of the new signalmen's rostering arrangements the old established ritual of 'making out the weekly timesheet' (that would be carefully made out by signalmen that showed what 'rest days' had been worked and any allowances such as 'travelling time' to be paid) would be collected from all boxes during the week and sent into the admin office for making out the signalmen's wages was to be abolished because in future it would be made out by the roster clerk who dealt with the signalmen's rosters which drew a few comments from one or two signalmen at the time regarding possibly being 'short paid' but it worked out alright and the comments of possibly being short paid turned out to be groundless.

A personal memory relating to the 1994 signalman's strike was the day that I was working a early turn (06:00-14:00hrs) at Camden Road box on the north London line and possibly a couple of months into the strike near the end of it a woman possibly in her early 30s came up the box during mid-morning around 10:45 am and handed me a 'carrier bag of money' consisting of 'loose change' that had been collected by herself and several of her friends which I gratefully accepted. Apparently they were members of the Socialist Workers Party and had been out on the streets of Camden Town 'collecting for the striking signalmen' which was very kind of them indeed. After the young lady had left the box I counted out the loose change into three separate piles for myself and my two other colleagues at the box and from vague memory we all three received about £44.38p each!.

Towards the end of the strike people were getting fed up with it but everyone on my area stuck it out to the bitter end.