ARRIVA customers were today urged to write to the Rail Maritime and Transport union (RMT) in the latest twist in the ongoing strikes saga.

The move came as conductors in the RMT started another strike, their 14th of this year.

Ray Price, managing director of Arriva Trains Northern, asked Evening Press readers to urge the RMT to give their conductor members a ballot on the company's latest pay offer.

He said the company had recently increased its offer from three to four per cent "after the RMT indicated that the offer would be accepted".

But he said the RMT had then decided to reject the offer without putting it to a vote of members.

He said: "We have no difficulty in recruiting conductors on their current rates and we are not losing conductors to other train operators. If the RMT continues with their policy of strike action, by the end of this year our conductors will each have lost £2,500."

He asked customers to write to Bob Crow, general secretary, National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, Unity House, 39 Chalton Street, London, NW1 1JD.

Tomorrow's strike by conductors is expected to mean 55 per cent of services will be operating and 75 per cent of Arriva Trains Northern's network is covered.

Another strike by station and retail staff in the RMT and TSSA unions, which started today, was not affecting services.

Stan Herschel, RMT regional organiser, said the union had never said officially it would definitely ballot on an offer of four per cent, and had always said such an offer would be "derisory".

The only thing that had happened had been an informal meeting between his general secretary and Arriva Trains. He said the union were looking for something in the region of nine per cent.

Meanwhile, York MP Hugh Bayley has resigned from the RMT, stating he was unwilling to take "cash for questions".

He joins John Prescott in quitting the union in protest at its decision to withdraw financial support from MPs who failed to agree a "loyalty oath".

Mr Bayley, who reached the decision after speaking with the Deputy Prime Minster last night, was one of 13 MPs who fell victim to an RMT purge earlier this week. General Secretary Bob Crow said it was severing funding to their constituency Labour Party offices because it preferred to have MPs loyal to union policies such as renationalisation of the railways.

But Mr Bayley, who has been an RMT member for ten years, said his priority had to be the people of York.

He said: "I cannot have any other organisation telling me what to do or say in Parliament. I do not take cash for questions.

"I talked this over with John Prescott and we both decided to resign from the RMT. I am sorry to do so because I have had a lot of support from RMT members in York over the years. I will continue to work for them and for other rail workers in York. But I cannot stay in a union which is campaigning against the Labour Party."

Updated: 12:25 Friday, June 28, 2002