Rail unions plan to ruin Commonwealth Games
... but at least you can get to the stamps!
RAIL unions yesterday threatened to wreck the opening of the Commonwealth Games as they called another 24- hour strike after rejecting the latest pay offer.
RMT workers for Network Rail and 14 train operators will stage their next walkout on July 27 – hitting fans travelling to the Games in Birmingham that start the following day.
Shift patterns of key staff mean network disruption will spill into July 28. Only one in five services is likely to run the day before.
The announcement came as the RMT branded the offer – aimed at halting a summer of strikes – ‘paltry’ and TSSA workers for three more operators – Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia and TransPennine Express – voted for strike action.
Network Rail on Tuesday offered RMT staff with a salary below £24,000 a pay rise worth 13 per cent over two years, with higher-paid workers getting 5 per cent each year. But Eddie Dempsey, the RMT’s deputy leader, told the Commons transport committee although the latest offer was a ‘definite improvement’, the union would reject it. Last night, Network Rail chiefs were mulling whether to cut union barons out of the talks and go straight to staff.
Sources said they believe workers may accept the offer – although it risks antagonising the RMT.
Network Rail negotiator Tim Shoveller told MPs the latest offer was the ‘maximum we can afford’ without more modernisation.
Network Rail has also made a pay offer to the TSSA, while members of train drivers’ union Aslef at 11 operators have voted to strike. All three unions have vowed to coordinate walkouts if pay deals aren’t struck.
Head of Network Rail Andrew Haines said the offer was ‘fair and affordable’, while the strikes had ‘clearly been designed’ to disrupt the Commonwealth Games.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps wrote on Twitter that the RMT was ‘hellbent on causing further misery’, slamming the action as ‘a bid to disrupt the travel of thousands trying to attend an event the whole country is looking forward to’.
Mr Shapps spoke out as it emerged that Aslef boss Mick Whelan and his deputy, Simon Weller, pocketed pay rises of more than 10 per cent last year – when inflation was at 2.6 per cent.
Mr Whelan, whose union has about 20,000 members, also wants pay increases in line with inflation for drivers who enjoy average salaries of around £60,000 and only work four-day weeks.
Meanwhile, Post Office workers today went on strike, with Communication Workers Union members walking out for 24 hours in protest at a 3 per cent pay offer.