Railway workers in Scotland took 24-hour strike action on ScotRail yesterday after the RMT union rejected a real-terms pay cut.
ScotRail bosses have offered 5% but with inflation running at well over 11%, and a cost of living crisis that shows no signs of ending, RMT is demanding the company puts forward a decent proposal.
The day-long stoppage came two days after a national strike by Network Rail and 15 train operating companies across Britain.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘ScotRail knows this offer is not good enough and needs to take into account the escalating cost of living crisis.
‘Our members refuse to be made poorer and will exercise their industrial strength to let ScotRail know that they will not rest until they are paid what they deserve.’
Dispatchers, station staff, conductors, ticket examiners and cleaners were among those on strike.
The RMT appealed to the public to ‘bear with them’ as they fight for a ‘fair offer’.
The last offer made to staff was a 5% increase, but the RMT, which represents the majority of non-driver ScotRail staff, is fighting to defend its members’ wage levels.
Mick Hogg, RMT senior organiser for Scotland and Northern Ireland, said: ‘We are seeking a pay increase that reflects the cost of living crisis.
‘Inflation is running at 12.3% and what we are seeking is a fair settlement that comes somewhere near.
‘We feel 8.2-8.3% is a fair offer. If it is good enough for the Scottish government to give bin workers and teachers a 10% pay increase then it is good enough for rail workers.’
He added: ‘The bosses don’t hold back when they give themselves pay rises and we have a situation within Scotland’s railway where the managing director is on a salary of £335,000 and we have a CEO of ScotRail Holdings on £120,000 for a three-day week.’
Hogg said the union would ‘seriously consider’ an offer of 8.2-8.3% and that the 5% on the table was ‘way below what we would consider to be a reasonable offer’.
He said that, at present, no further talks were planned.
Over 40,000 RMT members and several hundred TSSA members were on strike on Saturday in the latest action in their powerful struggle against the Tory government and the railway privateers.
Aran Chakal, CWU rep and postal worker joined the RMT workers on the picket line at London Bridge station on Saturday morning in solidarity with their strike.
He said: ‘We are fighting the same issues. Execs and CEOs are creaming off profits, telling workers “you need to work harder, for less money” and these are people who only work one day a week and take all the money out.
‘It’s not acceptable. Everyone is caught in the cost of living crisis. There’s not help or support. We were heroes in the pandemic and now we are lazy and workshy.
‘Management’s demands for increased production are unreasonable. Everyone has been calling for joint action with the railwaymen – postal workers and now nurses. We need a general strike.
‘We are stronger together. We are all fighting for the same things especially in the public sector, which are being destroyed by shareholders and executives who only want to strip the assets and destroy massive institutions like the Post Office and the NHS, which are part of our history and social fabric.’
John Guthrie, RMT Branch Secretary, London Bridge, said: ‘We have huge public support. All the attempts in the press to discredit the strike the public don’t buy into it. People come to our picket line and say thank you for staying outside.
‘Truss is definitely anti-union. They are pushing their legislation to use temporary staff to break strikes. So that says it all.
‘The RMT is obviously going to oppose whatever sanction they bring in. We will fight tooth-and-nail against agency and temporary staff taking our jobs.
‘Everyone is coming out on strike, even the nurses are balloting. It was a real surprise hearing Starmer say he wouldn’t support the nurses. He is looking after himself. He just doesn’t seem to want to get stuck in.
‘The strike is going well. The RMT is sending out new ballot papers and we are confident we will get the vote to continue.’
At the Willesden Maintenance depot, pickets got plenty of hoots of support from passing drivers.
RMT striker Gary Crowley told News Line: ‘I’ve never known such public support for a strike. The working class is being punished by this government. There should be a general strike.
‘Network Rail are attacking our terms and conditions by cutting our work teams down from three men to only two. This will reduce safety, so “modernisation” will have a detrimental effect on safe rail travel.
‘Pay is important, but the main thing this strike is about is cuts to the terms and conditions of working.’
Millie Garrison, RMT local rep at Liverpool Street Station, said: ‘We have to fight for our rights because the cost of living is sky-high.
‘The rail management need to sit down with us and negotiate. What I find hard to understand is how the fat cats have so much money whilst workers who genuinely do all the hard work get nothing.
‘I feel that if the management don’t come to an agreement, the strikes will continue, but just having separate strikes is not enough, all the unions should come out at the same time and shut down the country for a week in a general strike.’
more than 50,000 Members from the RMT, ASLEF, TSSA, and Unite the Union shut down almost the entire rail service in the country on the first day of this month.
The strikes, with more days of action planned, are part of action that has been ongoing for months.
The unions are standing up for the safety and sustainability of the UK’s railways in the face of brutal, short-sighted attacks on the service by operators.
Network Rail, the company in charge of UK railway infrastructure, are planning to slash thousands of safety-critical roles, but unions are fighting to defend these jobs, as well as the pay and conditions of their members.
In a classic demonstration of corporate greed, rail operators are proposing these cuts at the same time as paying out hundreds of millions to shareholders and millions in executive pay.
And Britain’s railway workers are not alone.
Around the world, unions are engaged in the same struggles for safe and sustainable rail.
In Belgium, where the railways are publicly owned, unions are planning strike action demanding urgent measures to stop and reverse the deterioration of services and conditions after years of underfunding.
Their struggle underlines the fact that public ownership alone is not enough, without proper public investment and democratic control.
France’s CGT are also planning strike action this month, demanding increases and protections to the minimum wage and pensions.
Again, while corporate bosses and the richest individuals in France see their profits soar, workers are being asked to pay the price: a price that CGT members simply refuse to cough up.
In the United States, the threat of unprecedented strike action across freight rail services secured workers a 24% wage increase over the coming years, as well as an $11,000 payout pending ratification.
This strike, had it gone ahead, would have been the first in the industry in 30 years, and analysts warned that it would’ve cost the US economy more than $2 billion a day – underlining the concrete power that transport workers hold when they are organised.
In Korea and India, ITF affiliates are fighting privatisation and demanding greater supply chain accountability.
In Pakistan, the tragic and devastating impact of climate change on the lives and livelihoods of transport workers has been made clear.
Due to the flooding, railway operations have come to an almost complete halt, costing the economy Rs90m a day.
This has led to railway companies refusing to pay their staff, despite the fact that these workers are busy day and night working to restore services and infrastructure.
Many of these workers are doing this despite having been personally devastated by the flooding.
David Gobe, chair of the International Transport Federation (ITF) Railway Section, said: ‘All around the world, it is the same story.
‘Railway workers are on one side having faced decades of declining standards and conditions whilst keeping their countries moving, and enduring the brunt of privatisation, austerity and climate change.
‘And on the other side, profits continue to break records and shareholders continue to reap rewards, while the services and infrastructure that passengers and the public need are driven into the ground.
‘This is why unions refuse to stand by, because their members are seeing the disparity in wealth grow irrespective whether they live in the UK, Belgium, Korea, India or in my home country France.
‘Workers are saying enough is enough and are taking a stand for their fair share, and for cities and countries to be equipped with the safe and sustainable railways we need to move our people.’
Across the world, ITF affiliates are fighting for Safe and Sustainable Rail for all workers. The campaign demands:
- Safety – ensuring railways are properly staffed and that staff have decent pay and conditions, as well as proper training on occupational health and safety;
- Sustainability – ensuring investment and expansion of railways, lobbying for a modal shift as part of reducing carbon emissions from transport;
- Public Ownership – demanding railways be in public hands, accountable and democratic and receive proper investment;
• Social Justice – ridding railway supply chains of exploitation and ending the race to the bottom created by the competitive tendering model.
