UNION bosses will highlight their fight with Arriva Trains Northern (ATN) at the forthcoming TUC Conference.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) is to table an emergency resolution about the dispute at the Blackpool conference.

A contingent of union members who work for ATN will travel to the seaside resort on September 9 to ask trade unions nationwide for their support.

The RMT has been in dispute with ATN since January. Conductors are striking in protest at a pay increase they claim was given to drivers but not to them.

Station and clerical staff also represented by the RMT have been holding strikes since March in a long battle for better pay and conditions.

Negotiators at the RMT York office, who are behind the motion, say it is a vital way of highlighting the dispute and sending a message to Arriva that the strike is as strong as ever.

Stan Herschel, York negotiator, said: "The motion condemns Arriva, and we are looking to take a few members down with us to Blackpool.

"The RMT would hope that the TUC conference gets behind any legally-held industrial action.

"We want to raise the profile of the dispute and bring our message to the rest of the country. It will also send a message to ATN."

Ray Price, managing director of Arriva Trains Northern, said: "We have made a new two-year pay offer to the RMT which we believe goes much of the way to meet the aspirations of our conductors.

"For the sake of our customers and conductors, we really urge the RMT to devote their energies to the resolution of this dispute and allow their members to consider the latest offer we have made and join us for discussions with ACAS."

Updated: 10:25 Saturday, August 31, 2002