TRAIN drivers at more than a dozen companies will strike on Friday, 1 September and refuse to work overtime on Saturday, 2 September, their union Aslef said yesterday.
It marks the latest industrial action in Aslef’s long-running pay dispute.
The strike will force companies to cancel all services in the country, and the ban on overtime will seriously disrupt the network as none of the privatised train operating companies employs enough drivers to provide a proper service without drivers working on their days off.
The 16 companies affected include: Avanti West Coast; Chiltern Railways; c2c; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway; Greater Anglia; GTR Great Northern Thameslink; Great Western Railway; Island Line; LNER; Northern Trains; Southeastern; Southern/Gatwick Express; South Western Railway; TransPennine Express; and West Midlands Trains.
Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary, said: ‘We don’t want to take this action but the train companies, and the government which stands behind them, have forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have soared in that time by more than 12%.
‘The government appears happy to let passengers – and businesses – suffer in the mistaken belief that they can bully us into submission. They don’t care about passengers – or Britain’s railway – but they will not break us.
‘Train drivers at these companies have not had a pay rise for four years – since 2019 – while inflation has rocketed. We haven’t heard a word from the employers – we haven’t had a meeting, a phone call, a text message, or an email – since Wednesday 26 April, and we haven’t had any contact with the government since Friday 6 January. This shows how the contempt in which the companies, and the government, hold passengers and staff and public transport in Britain.
‘They are happy to let this drift on and on. But we are determined to get a fair pay rise for men and women who haven’t had one for four years while inflation has reached double figures. Our members, perfectly reasonably, want to be able to buy now what they could buy back in 2019.’
Aslef’s latest action follows a series of six-day overtime bans this summer, which have caused reductions in services and cancellations.
Some 20,000 RMT members are to strike on Saturday, 26 August and Saturday, 2 September.
Workers at 14 train companies are expected to take part. The rail operators affected are: Avanti West Coast, c2c, Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, LNER, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, Transpennine Express, West Midlands Trains and GTR (including Gatwick Express).
Workers on CrossCountry trains will take four consecutive Saturday strikes in a dispute over working conditions.
Management proposals for staff in Edinburgh would see members becoming poorer, after CrossCountry withdrew an earlier financial offer.
There is also no commitment to ensure that members currently with flexible working arrangements will continue to keep their existing agreements in their entirety.
CrossCountry informed the RMT that all despatch duties will cease, and that the despatch element of our members current role ‘does not meet their business model’. RMT believes this is the thin end of the wedge.
Attempts to resolve the issue through dialogue have so far failed and the union has been appalled at the attitude displayed by management who have focused on circulating propaganda to staff attempting to divide the workforce rather than come to a settlement.
Ahead of the strike, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘CrossCountry have not been serious in trying to resolve this dispute and have put their energies into attempting to discredit their own staff.
‘We will not accept attacks on our members jobs, conditions or allow them to be made poorer.
‘Our four day strike action shows how serious our members at CrossCountry view these attacks.
‘In our union, if you attack one member of staff, you are attacking the whole workforce and that is unacceptable.’
Unions say any pay offer should reflect the rising cost of living – with the inflation rate only recently having dipped below 10%.