Union leaders were accused on Wednesday of trying to disrupt the Commonwealth Games, as railroad workers declared a national strike the day before the event.
The members of the Union of Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) will leave for 24 hours from midnight to midnight on July 27 in an action that also runs the risk of leaving the services in disarray the next morning .
Separately, the Aslef drivers ’union was about to launch its own strikes, which could be scheduled between 2am on July 27 and 2am the next day.
The strikes follow a “final offer” from Network Rail, owner of tracks, stations and signals, at the RMT on Tuesday that overshadowed the pay raises offered to nurses, teachers and doctors.
He introduced a new deal equivalent to a five per cent pay rise, very discounted train travel for family members and cash bonuses of up to £ 900. The public company also ruled out mandatory layoffs over the next two years.
But Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, said: “Network Rail’s offer represents a real pay cut for our members, and the negligible sum is conditional on RMT members accepting drastic changes in their lives. labor “.
He said train operators had yet to make a revised offer on pay and working conditions.
Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, said it was “deeply worrying that these strikes were clearly designed to disrupt spectators heading to the opening of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on July 28, an event of enormous national importance. “
The three-day RMT action in June was the biggest railway dispute in a generation, with only one in five trains running on strike days.