Grant Shapps has stepped up the government’s confrontation with rail unions by ruling out a meeting with them as a shadow transport minister said lives could be lost if wages were not improved.
Labour’s Sam Tarry challenged his party leadership to picket in Euston on Wednesday morning as rail strikes disrupted journeys for millions.
Shapps, the transport secretary, ruled out any meeting with rail unions even if the situation continues or escalates. In an interview with Sky News on Wednesday morning, Mr Shapps said he was “not the right person to be in the negotiating room”.
Pickets were set up outside train stations across the country on Wednesday as members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at Network Rail and 14 train operators went on strike over jobs, pay, pensions and conditions
Keir Starmer reiterated on Tuesday that the Labor bench should not be on the picket line. But Tarry told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “If we don’t take a stand today, people’s lives could be lost.”
He said: “Some of the lowest-ranking workers are on strike today in the rail industry – safety-critical workers, workers who make sure our railways get people to work and do it safely.
“It can no longer be accepted that people just have to accept that inflation is out of control. The government is doing nothing about the cost of living crisis, and I’ll tell you what’s shameful: I firmly believe that if we had a Labor government right now, this row wouldn’t be happening because we’d actually be around the table.
Only one in five trains will run on Wednesday, with some areas without trains throughout the day.
Disputes are gathering pace, with more union action expected in the coming days and weeks on London’s railways and Underground.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said in an interview with Sky News: “What we want is to get an agreement. It’s a simple industrial dispute about jobs, pay and conditions and we could do that if Grant Shapps allowed the companies trade freely.
“What we have here is a protracted dispute over the position of this government and over the attitude of Grant Shapps and his approach to industrial relations. So if companies were allowed to act like all other companies, we would get an agreement”.
Passengers are asked to use trains only if absolutely necessary, to allow extra time and to check when their last train will depart.
Trains are expected to be disrupted on Thursday morning, with services resuming later as employees return to work.
The Transport Salaried Staff Association (TSSA) has also announced a strike by its members at Avanti West Coast on Wednesday, while members of the seven-company Aslef drivers’ union will strike on Saturday.
Shapps, when asked by Sky News when he had last met with the unions and if it had been months as they said, replied: “They don’t need to talk to ministers to sort this out because their employers are the people who have the mandate to negotiate this.”
When pressed for a yes or no on whether “at no time, even if this goes on, are you going to get involved,” Shapps said: “It’s a no.”
He argued that demanding their presence in negotiations was “a game of the unions” and said his plan was to modernize union laws.