Dozens of workers staged picket lines today in Glasgow city centre.
Members of the RMT union took to Glasgow Central and Queen Street stations, with the scheduled strike causing disruption across ScotRail services.
From early morning until 12pm, employees were outside the stations, holding up signs such as "All ScotRail grades are essential workers" and "ScotRail staff deserve better".
They are looking for a pay rise to mitigate the cost of soaring inflation, as well as protection from proposed compulsory redundancies.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch also joined strikers on the picket line at Queen Street station.
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A large proportion of ScotRail’s employees are members of the RMT, including conductors, ticket examiners, hospitality, station staff, engineering depot staff, train presentation, supervisors, resource co-ordinators, and CCTV operators.
Last Thursday, the union rejected ScotRail’s latest pay offer of 5%, which the train operator had tabled in a bid to avert strike action.
Mick Hogg, RMT Scottish organiser, described the latest pay deal as “a kick in the teeth” offer, saying it goes “nowhere near the cost-of-living crisis and constitutes a pay cut”.
He said the union remains available for talks to continue.
The dispute is separate from the RMT’s unresolved deal with Network Rail, which has seen disruption across the whole Great Britain railway network on a number of days since July.
READ MORE: Train strikes: Mick Lynch joins striking workers in Glasgow amid 'significant disruption'
Due to the industrial action, a "very limited" number of ScotRail services are running today.
Ahead of the strikes, Phil Campbell, ScotRail Head of Customer Operations, said: “We’re really disappointed that the dispute with the RMT has reached this outcome, given the strength of the improved pay offer ScotRail made.
“This strike action does nothing for the railway’s recovery at this fragile time. It will severely impact our customers and it will also cost our staff through lost wages.
“Due to the large number of ScotRail staff who are members of the RMT, ScotRail customers should expect significant disruption to services on Monday, October 10, as we won’t be able to operate the vast majority of our services.
“We’re advising customers to seek alternative means of transport and to only travel if they really need to tomorrow, Monday, October 10.
“We remain open to resolving this dispute.”
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