Sacre bleu: Eurostar staff’s work/life balance strike started at St Pancras this morning – here’s what you need to know
The good news is that if you're planning on travelling to Paris today, things might not be as bad as expected – despite the fact RMT union members have put up pickets at St Pancras as they began the first stage of their work/life balance strike.
The strike – which, lest we forget, was voted for by a total of 48 people – will run until midnight on Monday.
The union is planning to take another three days of action – conveniently timed for the August bank holiday, between midnight on Saturday 27 August and midnight on Monday 29 August.
RMT general secretary Mick Cash (he of the telephone number salary) today paid tribute to the union's "solid, determined" members, who were "united this morning as they kick off the first phase of strike action".
"Pickets are out at St Pancras International as we send the message to the company that we expect them to honour basic agreements with the union that date back eight years.
"There will be talks this morning and all that we are asking for is that our members get a fair crack when it comes to anti-social hours and that agreements we signed up to in good faith are stuck to."
But what of passengers booked to travel to Paris this weekend? Here's what you need to know.
What Eurostar says
A spokesperson told Morning Wire:
"All passengers booked to travel this weekend will be able to do so. We have made some small changes to our timetable with all passengers due to travel on affected trains notified in advance, to allow them to change their booking to another train on the same day.
"Eight services have been cancelled across the four days. We would normally run over 200 trains during this period, so the cancellations represent less than four per cent of services."
What that means in practice
Planned cancellations include:
-
Today
Train no. 9114, 8:04am departure from London to Brussels
Train no. 9133,12:52pm departure from Brussels to London
-
Saturday
Normal service -
Sunday
Train no. 9035, 14:13pm departure from Paris to London
Train no. 9045, 16:43pm departure from Paris to London
Train no. 9016, 10:01am departure from London to Paris
Train no. 9040, 16:31pm departure from London to Paris -
Monday
Train no. 9008, 07:55am departure from London to Paris
Train no. 9013, 08:43am departure from Paris to London