Union leaders, the rail minister and industry chiefs are set for talks tomorrow after industrial action across the rail network brought the country to a standstill for a second straight day.
Only 20% of services were running as around 40,000 RMT members working for Network Rail and 14 train operators struck for a second day. Another 48-hour strike is scheduled for Friday.
Rail passengers are being warned that trains will run much later than usual on Thursday, despite it being a non-strike day, with the first trains much busier than usual due to strike disruption.
Industrial action, combined with snow and sub-zero temperatures, has contributed to a dramatic drop in footfall to UK cities as businesses recovering from the pandemic desperately try to get business back over Christmas.
Around 115,000 members of the Communications Workers Union (CWU) who work for Royal Mail also took part in further strike action today and will also strike on December 15, 23 and 24, with today’s pictures showing huge piles of letters and parcels. piled high outside landfills.
The pile of mail at the Royal Mail office in Bristol Filton. Photo: Ben Birchall/Pennsylvania
Up to 100,000 nurses who are members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) will also take part in their first industrial action on Thursday.
The RMT has confirmed it will hold further talks with rail minister Hugh Merriman on Thursday, along with train operators and Network Rail.
The union’s general secretary Mick Lynch said: “I congratulate RMT members who have shown tremendous dignity and fortitude during this 48-hour strike. They showed how important their work is to the functioning of the economy and society as a whole.
“All they want is a negotiated agreement on job security, decent pay rises and good working conditions.”
Figures from retail analysts Springboard showed the impact of sub-zero temperatures and strikes on the high street, with footfall on Tuesday – the first day of rail strikes – down 37% on the same day in 2019.
In the UK it was down 26%, while footfall was down 28% in shopping centers and 9% in retail parks.
The latest figures from TomTom show that strike action has also affected the number of people getting into their cars, as congestion in major cities increases across the board. London recorded growth of 10%-15%.
Despite fresh talks between the RMT, rail bosses and the government, hopes are dim that another two-day strike on December 16-17 can be averted.
The rail operator’s overtime ban will also cause varying degrees of disruption until further strikes on January 3-4 and 6-7. Another strike will mainly affect engineering works from late Christmas Eve until 7am on December 27, while ongoing repair work will also affect the remaining journey over the festive period.
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Further rail disruption is expected after Christmas as smaller union TSSA said 700 members working for West Midlands Trains (WMT) and Great Western Railway (GWR) will strike on Wednesday 28 December in a dispute for pay, work and conditions.
Elizabeth’s line workers, who are employed by Rail for London Infrastructure (RfLI), also voted overwhelmingly to strike. Prospect union members rejected the 4% pay offer for 2022 and said the offer was “well below the current rate of inflation”.
There were signs of progress in other industrial disputes as RMT members who work as security guards on Eurostar services called off strikes planned for later this week. Workers employed by contractor Mitie were due to take strike action on Friday and Sunday in a pay dispute.
The RMT said it had suspended strikes this week so security staff could vote in a referendum on Mitie’s latest proposal. However, if the dispute is not resolved, there will be more strike action on December 22 and 23, the union said.
Mitie said that pay negotiations with the RMT were ongoing and that emergency measures had been put in place so that Eurostar services would not be affected.
Members of the Unite union, who work for Network Rail in electrical control rooms, have also called off planned strike action and accepted an offer for improved pay.
Andrew Haynes, chief executive of Network Rail, said: “RMT management needs to think long and hard about what to do next. Further strike action will cause further misery for the rail industry and its members who will lose pay.
“This news is particularly disappointing given that we learned today that colleagues represented by the Unite union have accepted the same offer made to RMT members. The RMT are the outliers here – they need to stop playing politics and work with us to end this dispute.”
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