Wave of strikes will trigger ‘summer of discontent’

UNION leaders vowed a “summer of discontent” not seen since the 1926 General Strike ahead of a series of “coordinated” strikes intended to cause chaos on railways, roads and at airports.

Union barons are accused of seizing on soaring inflation to threaten further strike action up and down the country.

Every government department has been ordered to draw up contingency plans to deal with any ensuing crisis that includes making sure supermarket shelves do not go empty and construction work on big projects is not halted by freight train stoppages preventing deliveries.

Yesterday Unite announced a coordinated strike on the London Underground and at Transport for London on June 21 that will leave the capital at a standstill on the same day that RMT members will bring the national rail network to a halt.

A third rail union, the TSSA, which represents Network Rail control room and maintenance workers, said it was also planning to ballot members.

Manuel Cortes, the TSSA general secretary, said: “The disruption will be unparalleled. I don’t think we will have seen anything like it since the 1926 General Strike. That’s the last time the three unions came out together. And we will co-ordinate our action. It’ll be a summer of discontent, no doubt.”

Beyond the train strikes, more than 40,000 BT workers are to be balloted next week for what would be the first national strike at the former stateowned telecoms monopoly in 35 years.

The vote has been convened by the Communication Workers Union, which is also preparing to launch a ballot of 115,000 postal workers at Royal Mail in a separate pay row.

Baggage handlers at Stansted Airport could also strike after rejecting a 4 per cent pay increase. Unite warned that Ryanair flights could “face serious disruption this summer” as a consequence. Unite and GMB union members are also balloting check-in staff and ground staff based at Heathrow over strike action at British Airways.

Looking further ahead to the autumn, 1.4 million local government workers, representing council and school employees, could be on collision course for a strike after submitting a pay demand this week for an 11.1 per cent or £2,000 pay rise, whichever is the higher.

Karl Mccartney, the Conservative MP for Lincoln who sits on the transport select committee, accused RMT signallers, working for Network Rail, of “holding the country to ransom”.

He said RMT bosses were “harking back to an age when they had a purpose and a reason to be hard-nosed and rough and ready with their pugnaciousness. But those days are long-gone”.

Kwasi Kwarteng, the Business Secretary, has ordered an urgent review of existing industrial relations legislation to limit the disruption.

One reform he is understood to be looking at is overturning a ban on using temporary workers during strikes.

SIR KEIR STARMER was last night under pressure to condemn a wave of rail strikes after he failed to mention the issue in the Commons.

At Prime Minister’s Questions, the Labour leader repeatedly asked about NHS waiting times but did not make any comments on the three days of industrial action announced for later this month by the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union.

He was challenged by Boris Johnson who said: “When it comes to travel chaos, may I ask whether we have yet heard any condemnation from the Opposition of the RMT and its reckless and wanton strike? What about that?”

Passengers face a summer of rail chaos with strikes by as many as 40,000 staff across Britain’s train network.

The RMT this week announced its plans for the “biggest strike in modern history” amid a row over job cuts and pay freezes.

Network Rail, the state-backed owner of stations and track, plans to cut more than 2,500 frontline maintenance workers, the union said.

Meanwhile, the train operators have imposed wage freezes despite public sector workers receiving an inflationary rise in April.

Sadiq Khan, the London mayor, blamed a Tube strike set for June 21 on the Government, citing its refusal to grant Transport for London (TFL) longterm financial backing.

“At the heart of this industrial action is the Government’s appalling approach to public transport across the country, not least its continued resistance to delivering the sustainable funding TFL desperately needs,” a spokesman for the mayor said.

He called the walk out “extremely frustrating and disappointing” and urged unions to call off the strike.

A Labour spokesman later said that the party’s “clear” position is that the strikes “shouldn’t go ahead”. But they said the party has no current policy proposals aimed at limiting the disruption.

Labour accused the Government of acting as a “commentator rather than a player in these issues”, adding that the British public would expect ministers to be “doing something active to stop this disruption occurring”.

The spokesman said: “There is still time for there to be a resolution and we would encourage the Government to play a more active role in working with Network Rail and the unions to ensure they don’t go ahead.”

They added that unions “have got a role to play in representing their workforces but, equally, nobody wants to see industrial action that is going to be disruptive to the country and we would encourage all the parties involved to get together”.

‘May I ask if we have heard any condemnation from the Opposition of the RMT’S reckless, wanton strike?’