Rail union threat to strike for six months
As RMT plots new walk-outs, Network Rail admits dispute may lead to war of attrition
RAIL unions last night threatened to continue striking until just before Christmas ahead of the biggest shutdown of the train network in almost 30 years.
As last-ditch talks aimed at averting the walk-outs failed to make progress last night, the RMT union stressed it had a “mandate” for six months of industrial action.
On the other side of the negotiations, rail bosses told The Daily Telegraph they were preparing for a war of “attrition” which could last for months, and revealed they were drawing up plans to offer cash bonuses to signallers to cross picket lines.
More than 40,000 rail workers will walk out from tomorrow, crippling Britain’s transport network and threatening GCSE and A-level exams and hospital appointments.
Economists have warned that the strikes – also called for Thursday and Saturday – could knock 0.3 to 0.4 per cent off gross domestic product for June, with up to one in 20 people unable to go to work.
Other public sector unions are threatening to follow the rail workers and take action, with teachers preparing to ballot for a strike if they do not receive a pay settlement close to the rate of inflation.
The National Education Union said that unless it received a pay offer closer to inflation by Wednesday it would be informing Nadim Zahawi, the Education Secretary, that it plans to ballot 450,000 members.
NHS workers could also walk out if a pay rise due to be announced this week does not keep pace with inflation – expected to reach 11 per cent this year.
Christina Mcanea, the head of Unison, the country’s biggest union which counts NHS staff among its members, warned the Government that it faced a choice – make a “sensible pay award... or risk a potential dispute”.
It is understood that the RMT’S national executive will begin plotting the next round of rail strikes at the end of the week. A union source said: “We have a mandate for strike action for six months. The National Executive Committee will decide what to do next. They will only meet after this week and then need to give the employers two weeks’ notice.”
The RMT can call strikes with only a fortnight’s notice up until the end of November, six months after the ballot results were returned at the end of May. Further industrial action after that would require a fresh vote.
The two sides in the rail dispute remained poles apart last night, with further talks due to take place today. The Telegraph has learnt that Network Rail offered an initial two per cent pay rise and a demand for job cuts, while Mick Lynch, the RMT’S general secretary, yesterday revealed he was demanding a rise of at least seven per cent.
Asked if passengers should expect a “long fight”, Mr Lynch told the i newspaper: “That may have to be the way it is. I hope that’s not the case, but there doesn’t seem to be much evidence at the moment that it’s going to go any other way.”
Network Rail said the company was now digging in for “a battle of attrition” with echoes of the miners’ strike of the mid-1980s. A source said: “It is very unlikely these strikes will be a one-off. The RMT will meet after the strikes and decide what comes next and we assume there will be more disruption and more strike days. Then that moves the dispute into a battle of attrition.”
The source added: “We are looking at paying RMT signallers extra money to break the strike. Nothing has been decided but there have been discussions about doing that.”
The size of the potential inducement is unclear, but Network Rail recognises that it would be a drastic step. The source said: “The risk of breakaway signallers being branded scabs and being targeted is very alive today. Offering
bonuses to work is not something we are going to walk into lightly, but certainly something we are looking at.”
In a round of media interviews yesterday, Mr Lynch gave the first hint of his union’s pay demands, telling Sky News: “At the time of the Network Rail pay deal, which should have been done in December, it was 7.1 per cent, the Retail Price Index.
“That’s what the cost of living would have been at the time these deals should have been struck, so we’re going to negotiate to see if we can get a deal that reflects that cost of living.”
He also complained that railway bosses were trying to extend the 35-hour week for new workers, and demanded assurances that there would be no compulsory redundancies.
However, Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, accused the RMT of “gunning” for industrial action for weeks, and accused it of “punishing” millions of “innocent people” who will be affected by the strikes.