Transport secretary Chris Grayling will not meet the unions involved in the long-running dispute with Southern Rail, despite union chiefs accepting his offer.
The Department for Transport (DfT) has told Transport Network that an offer Mr Grayling made this week to meet the leaders of the RMT and ASLEF unions was conditional on strikes being called off, which neither union agreed to.
On Friday morning, Mr Graying told the BBC: 'I don’t think anybody can deliver the right solution with a gun to their head.'
Drivers’ union ASLEF plans three days of strikes next week and a DfT spokesperson said that as drivers belonging to the RMT were striking with them, Mr Grayling’s conditions had not been met.
In his letter to RMT general secretary Mick Cash, Mr Grayling said: ‘I ask you again to call off the RMT strikes on Southern and come to the table to meet with me to reach a resolution to this long-running dispute.’
Mr Cash replied to Mr Grayling that he was happy to meet him ‘at your earliest convenience’ without referring to the call to call off industrial action.
In his reply to a similar letter, ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan told Mr Grayling: ‘Your offer does not provide a rationale for my union to call off next week’s strike. Nonetheless, I remain willing to meet you at any time.’
Southern drivers will strike on Tuesday and Wednesday 24 and 25 January and Friday 27 January, with a further three days of strikes later this month.
On Thursday (5 January) the national rail watchdog gave qualified backing to Southern’s proposals for driver only operation, which are at the heart of the dispute.
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