Train passengers face another week of chaos on Britain’s railways as a series of long-running and aggressive industrial disputes drag on into the New Year and disrupt the return to work after the holidays of Christmas
Rail users have been warned to “only travel if absolutely necessary” between Tuesday and Saturday, with large parts of the network closed and skeleton services expected to run elsewhere.
Around 40,000 RMT members will walk on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday in a dispute over pay, job security and changes to working practices. Train drivers represented by the Aslef union will walk out on Thursday followed by pay, completing five days of travel misery for passengers.
The week of rail disruption comes as the government faces a growing wave of industrial unrest in the public sector, with unions pushing for significant pay rises to offset the rising cost of living.
Walkouts at National Highways and the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency this week will see control room staff and traffic officers join driving instructors in strikes organized by the civil servants union PCS. Nurses and ambulance workers are also set for more union action this month.
But the rail network has been affected by the most widespread strikes so far this winter. The RMT, the UK’s biggest transport union, is locked in two separate disputes with 14 train operating companies and infrastructure provider Network Rail.
There is some optimism within the industry that a deal to end the Network Rail dispute may be possible when talks are expected to resume next week.
In December, the RMT rejected a 9% pay rise over two years, with more for lower paid staff, which was linked to major changes in working practices. The union has since been isolated, after unions TSSA and Unite agreed to similar deals.
Network Rail’s chief negotiator Tim Shoveller said a deal could be “within a long way” if the RMT returns the 9% pay offer to members.
“We want to make sure we can work with the RMT now to clear up where there have been misunderstandings and republish the agreement,” he told the BBC on Tuesday.
Network Rail bosses have also been encouraged by signs that strikes are starting to break as staff lose money, and estimate that around 2,000 people went to work on a strike day in December. The RMT has said support for strikes remains high among its members.
The dispute with the train operating companies seems more difficult to resolve. The industry has offered an 8% rise, linked to labor reforms which the RMT has said it cannot accept.
recommended
Mark Harper, the transport secretary, urged unions on Tuesday to resume negotiations and “get off the picket line”.
Harper said the government did not have a “bottomless fund of taxpayers’ money” to settle disputes taking place in protest of below-inflation pay rises in the public sector.
“There is a fair and reasonable offer on the table which is comparable to the kind of payment arrangements that people listening to this program are getting across the economy,” he told the BBC’s Today programme.
Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, said he was ready to restart talks but insisted the government had undermined efforts to reach a deal.
Last month, the Financial Times reported that ministers had blocked industry from giving unions higher pay offers and were adding tough new conditions at the last minute. The government controls the purse strings of an industry that is now fully renationalised.
Ministers have argued that railways are facing a financial crisis following the pandemic and the subsequent collapse in passenger revenue, and must embrace reform and modernisation.
This week is expected to round off almost a month of continuous disruption due to a series of RMT layoffs throughout December, along with a ban on overtime on other days, which led to reduced services in many lines
Additional reporting by Jasmine Cameron-Chileshe