CrossCountry staff vote for strikes, as industrial relations breakdown
A series of strikes and industrial action short of strike action is set to hit CrossCountry services from the end of August. Staff that have spoken to me, tell of morale being in the cess pit and of management out of touch with the front line workers.
Following the recent ballot, in relation to a breakdown in industrial relations, RMT members at CrossCountry are set to take industrial action commencing on 23 August. Staff have been instructed not to book on for any shifts that commence between: 00.01 hours until 23.59 hours on Saturday 23rd August 2025 00.01 hours until 23.59 hours on Monday 25th August 2025 Additionally, the union's National Executive Committee has called the following industrial action short of a strike: No electronic scanning of tickets from 00.01 hours on Sunday 24th August 2025 until further notice. To comply with legal advice the above industrial action short of a strike will be suspended for the duration of the strikes but will commence again immediately after the strike action has concluded.
The news comes just weeks after CrossCountry sent a 'secret' email to senior managers, blaming Rachel Reeves for it having to cut back on its onboard catering.
One train manager said “Middle management is bloated. Too many people have been shuffled sideways into vague, hard to define roles. There are rooms full of people doing, well, it’s not always clear what they’re doing. The old phrase of monkeys at typewriters will eventually write Shakespeare comes to mind — waiting for that one brilliant idea to fall into their lap”. Another said “We’re told constantly that there’s no money and budgets are tight, we can’t afford extra staff, we can’t upgrade various devices and systems, we can’t invest in basics. But somehow, there’s always funding for vanity projects: glossy marketing schemes, half-baked branding initiatives, or minor updates that change nothing about the lived passenger experience. The essentials fall by the wayside while the boardroom claps itself on the back for a new PowerPoint slide or a screensaver”. A third train manger commented “Take the recent Seat Frog situation — a perfect example of muddled priorities and disastrous communication. In an apparent cost cutting move, management quietly decided that customers who upgraded via Seat Frog would no longer receive the full First Class service. No briefing. No explanation. No guidance. Just confusion. Staff were left scratching their heads as customers who paid for what they assumed was First Class began asking, quite rightly, why they were being treated like second-class citizens in First Class seats. It effectively created a class within a class — a kind of awkward Standard Premium no one signed up for. To make matters worse, the official website said one thing, reality said another, and conflict onboard became inevitable”. Adding “The truth is, CrossCountry is full of hard-working, passionate people who want to deliver great service. But they’re being let down — by short-sighted decisions, poor communication, and a leadership team that seems far more focused on optics than outcomes”.
An ASLEF ballot for industrial action, regarding CrossCountry drivers, is currently in progress with the results expected later this month.
The results of the RMT ballot were:
Strike action:
Number of staff entitle to vote: 937.
Number of votes cast: 526.
Number of yes votes: 489.
Number of no votes: 37.
Industrial action short of a strike:
Number of staff entitled to vote: 937.
Number of votes cast: 526.
Number of yes votes: 505.
Number of no votes: 21.
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