A second day of rail strike action is underway after talks to avoid a stoppage collapsed with resentment Wednesday night.
Millions of passengers face a disruption of train services in Britain on Thursday as 40,000 RMT members working for Network Rail and 13 train operating companies go on strike for a second week.
Only one in five trains will run on Thursday, and will only run between 7.30am and 6.30pm. Trains will be mostly restricted to main lines, with about half of the network closed. Passengers are asked to travel only if necessary.
The government plans to change the law, repealing what it describes as “burdensome” legal restrictions, to allow companies to supply temporary workers to cover striking staff during industrial action. Network Rail welcomed the move, but workers and unions condemned it as a “recipe for disaster.”
‘Marxist or the Hood?’: RMT’s Mick Lynch asked strange questions amid rail strikes: video
Last night, RMT union leader Mick Lynch attacked Transport Secretary Grant Shapps for “ruining negotiations by not allowing Network Rail to withdraw its letter threatening the dismissal of 2,900 of our members.” “in the pay dispute. working conditions and proposals for “modernization” plans. Shapps said RMT’s claim was “a total lie.” Network Rail said the union had dropped out of talks.
Separately, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association announced that its Merseyrail members had accepted a 7.1% pay offer.
Tim Shoveller, director general of the Northwest and Central Region of Network Rail, said a similar agreement with the RMT was highly unlikely. “We currently have a 3% offer on the table and we are ready to improve it, but that is subject to affordability,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today program on Thursday.
He said the difference between the 3% and 7.1% pay offers was £ 65 million a year in cost savings the industry should find. But he added: “We can see a way to finance a wage agreement, not in such proportions, but still a good package overall that recognizes that the main thing unions are asking for is a guarantee of non-compulsory dismissals.”
Also speaking on Radio 4, Eddie Dempsey, RMT’s deputy general secretary, said he would speak with Shoveller on Thursday and that the Network Rail letter would not necessarily prevent the union from negotiating.
However, he said: “What we can’t understand is how people in the industry can go to the media and say ‘We have no intention of forcibly firing people,’ but send us a letter to start the process. consultation law on dismissal and dismissal. refuse to give us a guarantee of non-compulsory dismissal, which is the number one demand we have in this dispute. “
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Dempsey described Merseyrail’s 7.1% wage deal as “important” and said other transport workers, London Underground and Crossrail, had reached wage agreements to reduce inflation.
“All the companies we are in dispute with are controlled by the Department of Transportation,” he said. “We think there’s a problem with the affordability of the railways and that comes down to the spirit. It can’t be that we’re seeing billions being taken out of our rail industry in the form of private benefits during the health emergency, and “At the same time, we can’t afford to pay a salary increase to workers, some of whom are in the third year of a wage freeze. That is intolerable to us.”
Members of the Aslef drivers’ union in Greater England went on strike on Thursday in a separate wage dispute.