Union chiefs overruled rail workers’ pay deal
Strikes were close to being called off before RMT chiefs rejected negotiators’ sweetened agreement
Rail union leaders were on the cusp of calling off today’s strike after being offered a pay deal late last week, but Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) negotiators were overruled by the national executive. The RMT said it had been “optimistic” after Network Rail offered a 4 per cent pay rise this year and next, but the proposals were rejected. It came as Grant Shapps, the Transport Secretary, moved to prevent rail unions from repeated walk-outs under a “one ballot, one strike” rule.
RAIL union leaders were on the cusp of calling off today’s strikes after being offered a sweetened pay deal late last week, The Daily Telegraph can disclose.
The RMT said it had been “optimistic” of a breakthrough after Network Rail committed to a “4+4” deal offering a four per cent pay rise this year and next. But the union was last night accused of “marching rail chiefs up the hill and down again” after negotiators were overruled by RMT’S national executive. It came as Grant Shapps moved to prevent rail unions from repeated walkouts under a “one ballot, one strike” rule. It is part of a package of 16 proposed measures drawn up by the Transport Secretary and expected to be backed by Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.
The change could halt strikes like today’s as unions would no longer be able to mount such action without reballoting their members. Today’s national strike by the RMT follows three days of strikes at the end of June.
In an exclusive article for The Telegraph, Mr Shapps said: “Currently, a single ballot gives unions a six-month window in which to hold strikes, with no further reference to the membership during that time. In future, each single, continuous bout of strike action should be justified by its own ballot.”
Eddie Dempsey, an RMT union negotiator, was said by industry sources to have believed “we can see a way through it and are prepared to postpone the strikes”. But the proposals were rejected by the RMT executive.
A source added. “The RMT executive seems intent on resurrecting the trade union movement in force.”
The union, however, insisted that it was Network Rail that had changed its stance. An RMT spokesman said: “We were optimistic about making enough progress to suspend strike action.
“However, that evaporated when Network Rail hardened their position on attacking our members’ conditions of work and even threatened to put compulsory redundancies back on the table.”
With only one in five trains scheduled to run today and a reduced “Sunday service” likely on Thursday, commuters will be forced to stay at home while holidaymakers in the UK will have their plans ruined. The RMT action is against Network Rail, the statebacked owner of tracks and stations, as well as 14 train operators. Further action is scheduled on the railways on Aug 18 and 20. Strikes will return on Saturday as Aslef, the drivers’ union walks out across eight train operators.
Yesterday the RMT announced a Tube strike on Aug 19, bringing public transport in the capital to a standstill for almost three days.
Mr Shapps accused the unions of putting the future of the railways at risk with their “reckless foreverstrike”.
He said such tactics cause “maximum disruptive bang for minimum union buck”.
“So, I’m looking at banning strikes by different unions in the same workplace within a set period,“he added.
Mr Shapps also proposed a rule requiring ballot papers to set out clearly the specific reason for a strike so a union could not bring in other demands or reasons; a limit of six pickets at points on critical national infrastructure and a 60-day cooling off period after a strike.
This comes on top of plans to raise the minimum threshold for voting in favour of strike action to 50 per cent – up from 40 per cent, and an increase in the notice period from two to four weeks. “The default strategy adopted by the RMT and others in industrial relations – their casual, habitual, brutal resort to the strike weapon – must end.
“We as a government must face this threat head on and make the union barons think twice before wielding it,” said Mr Shapps.
However, Mick Lynch, the RMT general secretary, warned yesterday that his campaign of strikes could last until next summer unless rail chiefs backed down.
During the 2019 general election campaign, the Conservatives made the following pledge. “We will stop railways grinding to a halt by ensuring that a minimum train service must operate during strikes … for too long, militant rail unions have caused misery for passengers up and down the country. The Conservatives believe we need a new balance between rail workers’ right to strike and other workers’ right to go to work.”
The party promised to legislate to oblige rail employers and unions to enter into Minimum Service Agreements (MSAS) which would set out the number and nature of staff who would remain at work during any strike. In the absence of an MSA, strike action would be unlawful “and there would never be a situation where there are no trains running, even during industrial action”.
Millions of passengers unable to travel by train today, and probably the rest of the week, are entitled to ask what happened to that legislation. It is hardly outlandish since similar provisions exist in many other countries including Spain, France, Italy and Belgium. The minimum service level varies between a fifth and a third of normal service.
Boris Johnson has said he regrets not bringing the measure to Parliament but blamed pandemic distractions. This is a reason but not an excuse. With a Commons majority of almost 80 behind him this should have been on the Statue Book by now.
As it is, the rail unions continue to cock a snook at the country and act with impunity, even making up for lost pay by working overtime, though this practice is supposed to have been stopped. Has it? The Tories vowed to stop passengers being “held hostage by the unions”. We’re still waiting.