Summer of discontent
COVER STORY RMT says rail strikes may spread to other sectors.
■ Grant Shapps warns staff risk “striking yourselves out of a job”.
■ Just 20% of services run on first day of action.
■ NR chief: better pay offer depends on better productivity.
■ Strike action at Wabtec.
PASSENGERS and freight operators should brace themselves for rail strikes to continue well into the autumn.
That’s the warning from RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch, who has predicted that industrial action could soon spill over into other sectors of the economy, following the failure of last-ditch talks to avert the largest rail strike since 1989.
An open invite has been given to all UK workers to join in common cause with the union, as more than 40,000 RMT members at Network Rail and 13 train operating companies walked out on June 21 in the first of three 24-hour strikes over pay, conditions and job security (RAIL 958, 959).
This number rose to 50,000 for the first day (but not on June 23 and 25), when they were joined by some 10,000 staff at
London Underground embarking on industrial action in a separate dispute over pensions, jobs and conditions.
Amid widespread concern over the rising cost of living, and with inflation forecast to exceed 11% this year, Lynch said: “I think there are going to be many unions balloting across the country, because people can’t take it anymore.”
Stood outside the RMT’s London HQ at Unity House on June 18, he added: “Every worker deserves a pay rise that reflects the cost-ofliving crisis. We call on the entire labour movement and the working people to rally to the support of the RMT and our members in this struggle.
“The RMT will support every group of workers who organise and fight for these aims, and we call for joint campaigning and co-ordinated action to achieve a better deal for workers and a fairer society.”
In the absence of a negotiated settlement, Lynch said the RMT would soon take a decision on how best to use the mandate
given to it by members to call industrial action at any time within the next five months. It is legally obliged to provide at least two weeks’ notice to employers of any further strikes.
He also warned employers that the national rail dispute looks set to widen, following the TSSA union’s decision to serve notice to ballot members working for Great Western Railway, Southeastern, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast, Northern, LNER, c2c and Network Rail.
Drivers’ union ASLEF has also called ballots at 11 operators including Greater Anglia, GWR, LNER and TransPennine Express.
Meanwhile, talks continue in Scotland following rejection by the RMT and ASLEF of pay offers made by ScotRail.
“That [more strikes] may have to be the way it is,” Lynch told the i newspaper on June 19. “I hope that’s not the case, but there doesn’t seem to be much evidence at the moment that it’s going to be any other way.
“The TSSA, which represents 6,000 NR staff, is balloting. ASLEF has about six or seven ballots being returned on July 11 - just a few weeks away. If there’s no settlement, I can only see this escalating.”
In a war of words with Secretary of State for Transport Grant Shapps, Lynch blamed the failure of negotiations on both Shapps and Chancellor Rishi Sunak. He accused the duo of “calling the shots” in not allowing NR and train operators to have sufficient financial headroom to offer an acceptable deal.
However, Lynch did not say what exact terms the union would be prepared to accept.
In a letter requesting an urgent meeting with Shapps, Lynch wrote: “It has become obvious in our discussions with employers since the RMT ballot result that the Government is retaining control over the conduct of negotiations, and the Treasury in particular is calling the shots.
“In effect, in recent weeks the union has been negotiating with the Government, but the Government has not been in the room.”
Shapps hit back by accusing the unions of using workers “for political ends”. He said that rail staff risked “striking yourselves out of a job” by alienating passengers, many of whom can now choose to work from home.
He also warned against making pay demands that were above and beyond what could reasonably be expected by other public sector workers and taxpayers more generally.