Another national rail strike will hit train travellers across Great Britain on Wednesday 27 July.
Members of the RMT union working for Network Rail as well as Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, GWR, LNER, Northern, Southeastern, South Western Railway and other train operators will take industrial action for 24 hours. Workers for train operators will walk out from 12.01am, with Network Rail staff stopping work from 2am.
Who is going on strike – and why?
Members of the RMT union, which comprises a wide range of rail staff from cleaners and station staff to signallers and guards, are involved in a dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.
They walked out in the first national rail strike for three decades on 21, 23 and 25 June. Talks have continued since then, but not to the satisfaction of the union.
The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, called an improved Network Rail offer “a paltry sum [which] is conditional on RMT members agreeing to drastic changes in their working lives”.
He said: “Strike action is the only course open to us to make both the rail industry and government understand that this dispute will continue for as long as it takes, until we get a negotiated settlement.”
Earlier his deputy, Eddie Dempsey, told MPs rail workers were being used as “a political football”.
He said: “The people on the other side of the table that we’re dealing with are telling us they regard themselves as brokers, not negotiators.
“They tell us they’ve got a mandate that they’ve got to refresh. They often have to leave the room to go and have a conversation with their ministerial people before they can continue discussions with us.
“We’re in a room with people that are not able to make decisions.”
The transport secretary, Grant Shapps said: “The railway must reform and modernise, and yesterday the RMT were offered a fair deal which would see salaries of their members rise by up to 8 per cent after two years to deliver just that.
“Yet the RMT has already opted for more destructive strikes and is hellbent on causing further misery for people across the country.
“No deal was ever going to be good enough for the RMT, and the negotiations over recent weeks have merely been for show while they plan how best to cause further chaos.
“The industry is already on life support and by insisting on working against its employers, instead of with them, the RMT risks pulling the plug for good.”
Will the network shut down?
No. At Network…
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