The rail network is set to be hit by new strikes next month, with drivers at 12 train operating companies walking out for two further days in their ongoing pay dispute, while RMT members will also strike on one of those days.
Drivers at Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Greater Anglia, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Northern Trains, Southeastern, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains will strike on 1 and 5 October.
Next month's strikes will be the latest in a succession of walkouts
Aslef said it has successfully negotiated pay deals with nine train companies this year and is in dispute with firms that have failed to offer its members anything.
General secretary Mick Whelan said: ‘We would much rather not be in this position. We don’t want to go on strike – withdrawing your labour, although a fundamental human right, is always a last resort for this trade union – but the train companies have been determined to force our hand.
‘The companies with whom we are in dispute have not offered us a penny. It is outrageous that they expect us to put up with a real terms pay cut for a third year in a row. And that’s why we are going on strike. To persuade the companies to be sensible, to do the right thing, and come and negotiate properly with us. Not to run up and say, “Our hands are tied and the government will not allow us to offer you an increase”.'
The union pointed out that it had called a strike for last Thursday (15 September) but cancelled it after Queen Elizabeth died, adding that although the TOCs were notified on Friday as it legally had to give 14 days’ notice it made no public announcement until after Monday’s state funeral.
The RMT said its members on the railways will also strike for 24 hours on 1 October, after it received no further offers from the rail industry to help come to a negotiated settlement.
It added that Arriva Rail London members, Hull Trains and bus workers at First Group Southwest will also take strike action on the same day ‘in separate disputes’.
A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group said the strikes ‘will once again hugely inconvenience the very passengers the industry needs to support its recovery from the ongoing impact of the pandemic’.
The spokesperson said: ‘The strikes are not in the long-term interests of rail workers or building a sustainable rail industry. We want to give our people a pay rise, but without the reforms we are proposing, we simply cannot deliver pay increases. Revenue is still around 80% of pre-pandemic levels, no business can survive that scale of upheaval without implementing change.’
Press reports have suggested that the TSSA unions is also set to announce a national walkout on 1 October and has already served notice on employers.
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