Much of Britain’s rail network has ground to a halt after workers went on strike, disrupting journeys for millions amid a worsening dispute with rail companies over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions.
With only about one in five trains running on around half the network, some lines closed and more strikes planned for Saturday and next month, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps threatened to ban “strikes by different unions on the same job place within a specified period ” and to ensure that critical industries such as rail transport maintain minimum levels of service.
Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT), responded by attacking the anti-union measures, which were also proposed by Tory leadership contenders Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak, as an attempt to “take away human rights and democratic right for people to express themselves through their trade union”.
Pickets were erected outside stations in England, Wales and Scotland as RMT members at Network Rail and 14 train operators went on strike. Members of the Transport Staff Association (TSSA) at Avanti West Coast also walked out on Wednesday. Both unions are planning coordinated strikes on August 18 and 20, while the RMT has announced strike action on the London Underground on August 19.
The RMT has dismissed Network Rail’s 8% pay offer spread over three years as “measly”, saying it was nowhere near current inflation. The proposal hinges on changes to working practices, redundancy rules and work-life balance, unions said. The RMT opposes proposals to close ticket offices as more journeys are booked online, as well as the unification of pay grades and changes to pension regimes.
Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, said: “Despite our best efforts to find a breakthrough, I fear there will be more disruption for passengers this week as the RMT appears determined to continue its political campaigns rather than compromise and agreeing a deal for their members.’
Shapps has ruled out meeting the unions to break the deadlock even if the situation escalates, telling Sky News he is “not the right person to be involved in negotiations”.
On Tuesday, Truss said: “It’s completely wrong that the traveling public is being held to ransom by militant unions… I will take a hard line on union action that doesn’t help people get on with their lives… I will pass laws to to make sure that these essential services are provided to the public.’
Shadow transport minister Sam Tarry has defied Labor leader Keir Starmer’s call for his frontbench not to join the pickets as he said lives could be lost if wages are not improved.
“It can no longer be accepted that people just have to accept that inflation is out of control,” Tarry said while at the picket in Euston. “The government is doing nothing about the cost of living crisis and I tell you what’s a shame – I strongly believe that if we had a Labor government right now this row wouldn’t be happening because we’d actually be around the table.”
Amid increased congestion in major cities and frustration among much of the traveling public, Lynch was asked by reporters if there was an alternative to strikes. “I could do a trial by combat… but I can’t think of it [another] right now because we have been negotiating for two years,” he said. “But it would be interesting if me and Grant Shapps went head-to-head, if that’s not too frivolous.”
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents rail operators, said: “Like any public service, we need to change with the times and only by making the necessary reforms can we increase the wages of our people. Which we want to do.”
Truss and Sunak said they would ban strikes on essential public services such as the railways, and Truss said he would legislate for minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure in the first 30 days of government, a move described by Lynch as “a proposal to make effective trade unionism illegal in Britain”.
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Shapps said the strikes were “cynically timed to prevent the start of the Commonwealth Games and the key semi-finals of Euro 2022 [Germany v France at Milton Keynes on Wednesday night]in a deliberate attempt to affect the travel of thousands trying to attend events that the whole country looks forward to”.
One Havant woman, Jen, who couldn’t make it to her uncle’s funeral because of the strike, told PA Media: “I would also like a pay rise in line with inflation, but in reality it’s not going to happen. I don’t choose to interfere in people’s lives because of it.”
Elizabeth Bolton, mother of a 23-year-old autistic man who had to travel from Staines to London for his first day at a new job, said he had been “upset and upset” by the strike. She said she understood the strikers’ frustration, but added: “It’s selfish not to think about other people… There has to be another way for them to have their say.”
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