How self ish! Rail union to strike on bank holiday
MILLIONS face travel chaos after militant rail workers yesterday vowed to start a 24-hour national strike on bank holiday Monday.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) – whose signalling staff earn up to £111,000 a year – voted four to one in favour of the strike after refusing an offer of a £500 bonus and inflation-linked pay.
Yesterday they announced the walkout would begin at 5pm on May 25 – the same day some rail fares are being increased – just as families are trying to make their way home after the long weekend.
The union warned that the biggest impact would be the next day as commuters attempt to return to work. ‘Services will be at a standstill,’ one official said.
Critics said the first national rail strike for 21 years has been timed to hit families on school half-term breaks in England. It will also affect football fans leaving Wembley following the Championship play- off final, which is due to kick off at 3pm.
Last night Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin condemned the action for ‘inflicting unnecessary disruption’, while rail bosses accused the militants of ‘holding the country to ransom’ with the ‘deplorable’ move after a decade of inflation-busting pay rises that far outstrip those in the public and private sectors.
But RMT’s general secretary Mick Cash said that the four-to- one vote gave it ‘a massive mandate for action’.
Last- ditch talks to avert the strike will now be held at the arbitration service Acas on Monday.
If they fail, about 16,000 RMT workers will walk out.
The union will also ban overtime for 48 hours on the Monday and Tuesday to create more disruption, having a huge impact on the heavy schedule of engineering work.
In the last four years the pay of Network Rail employees has soared eight times faster than the public sector and twice as fast as the private sector. The highest-paid main- tenance worker earns £80,031, while a top electrical control operator will be earning £108,980.
The walkout will be the first national rail strike since 1994 and is likely to force people to drive, raising the prospect of chaos on the roads as well.
Business Secretary Sajid Javid has promised ‘significant changes’ to the rules governing walkouts by trade unions.
These include a minimum threshold of 50 per cent turnout, as well as a requirement that – where it comes to essential services – 40 per cent of those eligible must vote in favour of strike action. This ballot passed the proposed threshold.
Some 60 per cent of RMT’s membership at Network Rail voted and 48 per cent voted to strike.
The dispute affects about 25,000 of Network Rail’s 35,000 staff across maintenance, operations, administrative and corporate functions, as well as controllers and signallers.
Some 16,000 of these are RMT members and are the most critical frontline workers with the capacity to shut down the rail lines.
Network Rail chief executive Mark Carne said: ‘This strike is deliberately t i med t o cause maximum disruption to families trying to enjoy the half-term break and millions more returning to work after the bank holiday.
‘I find it deplorable that the RMT can hold the travelling public to ransom in this way.’
RMT members will be joined by members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) union, which yesterday also voted in favour of strikes in the same dispute.
Some 53 per cent backed walkouts, and almost 80 per cent were in favour of other forms of industrial action.