Fresh rail strikes announced as union says public back workers in pay dispute

The union behind the national rail strikes has announced another 24-hour walkout after negotiations with Network Rail fell through.

RMT said the strike action will take place on Wednesday July 27.

After three days of strike action in June failed to result in a pay agreement, Network Rail this week offered the RMT a 4 per cent uplift for 2022 backdated to the first of January, as well as a further 2 per cent rise in 2023 and and a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies. The offer was rejected, RMT said on Wednesday.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “We have made progress on compulsory redundancies. But Network Rail are still seeking to make our members poorer when we have won in some cases double what they are offering, with other rail operators.

“The train operating companies remain stubborn and are refusing to make any new offer which deals with job security and pay.

“Strike action is the only course open to us to make both the rail industry and government understand that this dispute will continue for as long as it takes, until we get a negotiated settlement.

“The public who will be inconvenienced by our strike action need to understand that it is the government’s shackling of Network Rail and the TOCs [train operating companies] that means the rail network will be shut down for 24 hours.”

It comes after the union accused the government of picking a fight with bosses to deflect from its own chaos – and said the public is on the side of the workers.

Speaking during a transport committee hearing, RMT’s assistant general secretary Eddie Dempsey claimed the government – which wasn’t represented at the meeting – had painted railway workers as “the enemy within”. 

Dempsey also accused the government of hindering the negotiations with railway bosses, and claimed that “everywhere the Department for Transport is not involved, we’re managing to achieve settlements.”

He said: “The government were a bit shaky recently and felt it was a good opportunity to pick a fight with the RMT, paint us as the enemy within. I think they have bitten off more than they can chew as it has clearly demonstrated that the public is on our side.”

Dempsey was referencing polling conducted by Opinion that found nearly three in four Brits want rail workers to have a cost of living wage pay rise. 

• Will there be a national strike?
• How much should my pay rise to beat inflation?

Aslef general secretary Mick Wheelan joined the committee panel on a last minute invite, after his union’s members at eight train companies voted for strike action on Monday.  

Train drivers at Chiltern, GWR, LNER, London Overground, Northern, Southeastern, TransPennine and West Midlands will be striking, with Aslef board members meeting this week to discuss dates.

Wheelan told the committee the government was using modernisation as a guise to keep train drivers’ wages below the market rate. He said: “The only thing we have is that we sell our labour, and if somebody now wants us, under the guise of ‘modernisation’, to sell that for far less than its worth, that isn’t going to happen”.

The government has also recently pushed through plans that would allow ​companies to bring in agency workers to replace striking workers, something that had been banned under the trade union legislation. 

Transport secretary Grant Shapps claimed the reforms are “vital.. to ensure any future strikes will cause even less disruption and allow adaptable, flexible, fully skilled staff to continue working throughout.”

Unions have branded the plans an attack on the right to strike and raised concerns over the safety of bringing in temporary staff to work roles that require high levels of skills and experience. 

“The right to strike is a fundamental British liberty. The government is attacking it in broad daylight by allowing agency workers to be used as strikebreakers across the economy,” said TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady.

“Hiring agency workers to try to break strikes would put these workers in an appalling position, worsen disputes and poison industrial relations.

“And public safety could be put at risk by bringing in agency staff who haven’t been fully trained to deliver specific roles.” 

The agency worker sector has also criticised the law change.

​​“We have been clear that repealing the ban on agency staff covering for striking employees will not work,” said Neil Carberry, chief executive of the Recruitment and Employment Confederation. 

“As and when the law does change, we would advise recruitment agencies to tread very carefully. Not all business is good business, and they should consider the potential risks to both their business and agency workers before deciding whether to supply staff to a strike situation.”