Rail unions risk spilt over vote on pay offer

Electronic referendum of ticket office staff threatens to undermine calls for general strike

TICKET office staff will vote on an 8pc pay deal in a break with other railway workers that risks undermining union calls for a general strike.

The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) will allow 2,000 of its members to vote on the two-year pay deal, in a blow to staunch ally the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport

Workers (RMT). Although the TSSA does not support the offer from Network Rail, the move differs from the approach taken by the RMT, which has refused to put the deal to its members.

The split threatens to undermine the RMT’S calls for a general strike and suggests some union leaders could be coming under pressure over lost pay amid Britain’s “summer of discontent”.

The union told its members: “We are sharing the latest offer in full with members so you can take a view and have your say on your pay.”

An electronic referendum will be sent via email to all members today. It will close at 12 noon on August 4.

The announcement marks a change of tone by the TSSA. Mr Cortes earlier this year promised to launch “unparalleled” disruption over the summer.

At the time he said: “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 coordinate our action. It’ll be a summer of discontent no doubt. If it comes to it, I’ll have a strategy in place that causes the maximum possible disruption.”

Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, yesterday attacked Liz Truss’s plans to prevent “militant action” paralysing the economy. The Tory leadership candidate said new laws would be brought in to reduce the power of unions.

Mr Lynch said that “coordinated and synchronised industrial action” would be needed if legislation is brought in.

A general strike can only be called by the Trades Union Congress (TUC) if a “substantial” number of workers across different sectors refuse to go to work until demands for changes to pay and working conditions are met.

He told the i newspaper: “There is a whole host of measures that she [Ms Truss] is looking to bring in that will make it virtually impossible to have effective trade unionism and we think would effectively outlaw collective action.

“I think that’s a turn to the extreme right on behalf of the Conservatives, and they’re playing to their reactionary base. I think there will be an enormous response from the trade union movement.

“Only the TUC can call a general strike, we will be campaigning in that direction, but we need coordinated and synchronised industrial action against what they’re proposing.”

Meanwhile, Network Rail began a legal process to ram through changes to working practices without union consent. A formal consultation was launched to make sweeping reforms after weeks of talks with the RMT failed to yield results.

Roughly 1,900 people will also be made redundant. Network Rail said it did not expect to need to make any compulsory redundancies.

Andrew Haines, Network Rail chief executive, said: “We haven’t given up on finding a negotiated way forward. We have made a good pay offer and our door remains open, but we can’t continue to circle the same ground day after day, week after week.”

8pc

The proposed pay rise being voted on by members of The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA)