Rail union asking for at least 7pc pay rise
RMT general secretary gives first on-the-record indication of demands made to settle the dispute
THE RMT is seeking a pay rise of at least 7 per cent, its general secretary said yesterday.
Mick Lynch told Sky News that the union was demanding a deal that “reflects” the cost of living and keeps apace with inflation. The RMT has been guarded about its demands, insisting such negotiations take place behind closed doors. But ahead of talks yesterday with Network Rail, which ended in failure, Mr Lynch gave the first on-therecord indication of the RMT’S requirements to settle the dispute.
The first of three days of a national rail strike begins tomorrow, with industrial action also on Thursday and Saturday, that will bring much of the rail network to a grinding halt.
Network rail is offering RMT members a two per cent pay rise and a further one per cent later in the year if certain “productivity milestones” were being met.
Network Rail has said any great pay increase must be linked to modernisation of working practices and inevitable job cuts with hundreds of millions of savings that could be passed on to remaining staff. But with inflation currently running at nine per cent and predicted to exceed 11 per cent in the autumn, the rail union is holding out for a much more generous settlement.
The Government insists it has spent £16 billion subsidising the rail network during the pandemic and that the taxpayer should not be required to fund pay demands without modernisation plans in place to cut costs.
Speaking on Sky News’s Sophy Ridge programme, Mr Lynch said a deal should have been concluded in December when prices were rising at seven per cent. In the intervening months inflation has soared further and the unions were seeking to keep up with it.
Mr Lynch said: “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 a deal that reflects that cost of living.”
Mr Lynch also claimed the rail industry was attempting to extend the 35-hour week for new workers and that his union wanted assurance that there would be no compulsory redundancies amid future job cuts.
An RMT source said it was “not quite straightforward” that the union was demanding a pay rise that matched inflation and suggested other incentives could come into play. But the RMT is adamant that it needs assurances on job security before reaching any deal, including modernisation agreements.
Network Rail, which has taken the lead on negotiations with the train operators working in the background, has said that savings can be made only by reaching agreement on modernising union working practices. That includes cutting back on track inspections and using automated cameras instead to spot cracks in rails and other safety issues. Network Rail believes hundreds of millions of pounds could be saved that could be passed on to staff in pay rises more generous than the basic two per cent currently on the table.
The RMT does not have full support of the other rail unions which are also threatening strike action but are seemingly more amenable to negotiations.
One trade union source said: “It suits the RMT to man the barricades and have a bit of class war and talk about a general strike. Like John Lewis, the RMT never knowingly undersells anything. On the other side, it suits Grant Shapps [the Transport Secretary] to claim the unions are all against us. But not all the rail unions are going to walk into the bear trap set by the Government. We are not trying to bring the Government down.”