New Round of UK Rail Strikes as Big Chill Causes Road Chaos
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), joins the members of rail workers during a strike outside Euston station in London
James TweedieTrade unions across diverse sectors of the British economy have already taken industrial action or balloted for it, as pay offers fail to keep up with rampant inflation fuelled by sanctions on Russia.British rail workers have launched a new round of strikes just as a pre-Christmas cold snap caused chaos on the roads.The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union’s members at state-owned infrastructure firm network Rail walked out for 48 hours on Tuesday in the latest action in a long-running strike over pay.The RMT and many other unions have rejected pay offers of around four to five per cent, as an effective pay cut, since which fall way below the consumer price index (CPI) rate of inflation — which is currently running at 11.1 per cent.The strikes kicked off as the country was still recovering from two days of sub-zero temperatures and snowfall as far south as London, which saw motorists stranded on roads including the capital’s orbital M25 motorway.They are also set to hit businesses at Christmas time, especially pubs and restaurants already suffering from record high bills thanks to the energy crisis, following on from forced closures during the COVID-19 pandemic. The RMT has also called strikes at Network Rail on Friday and Saturday this week, as well as from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27 at the track company and a dozen train operation franchise holders. Meanwhile, Transport Minister Mark Harper claimed the “tide is turning” against the RMT leadership after more than a third of members voted to accept a revised pay deal from network Rail.But a majority of 64 per cent voted against the new offer of a five per cent pay rise this year and four per cent the next — which would also have seen job losses as 50 per cent of scheduled maintenance and 30 per cent of overtime were cut.RMT general secretary Mick Lynch called the offer “substandard”. But Harper urged the union to “look at it again, call off the strikes and accept what is a reasonable pay offer”.
WorldUK Loses Largest Number of Working Days to Strike Action Since 1990, Reports Say13:36 GMTThe minister stressed that the government did not have “a bottomless pit of money to go into the rail industry,” and pointed out that fellow rail union TSSA had already advised its members to vote in favour of the deal.”Even with the RMT’s very strong recommendation to their members to not accept the offer to turn it down, to reject it out of hand, we still saw nearly 40 per cent of RMT members wanting to accept it,” Harper said.Earlier on Tuesday morning, lynch had turned on BBC radio presenter Mishal Husain when she asked him to quantify how much RMT members would lose out in pay by not working overtime during the holidays.”Why do you need that number?” Lynch snapped, accusing her of “pursuing an editorial line I could read in The Sun or The Daily Mail or any of the right-wing press in this country.””You’re not pursuing the fact that working people — millions of them — are being impoverished… by the attitude of this government and by their employers,” he charged, claiming Husain was “just parroting the most right-wing stuff you can get hold of on behalf of the establishment.”
