There will be two more national rail strikes next month, on August 18 and 20.
Network Rail employees and 14 train operators who are members of the RMT union will lay down tools in the ongoing row over jobs, pay and benefits, the union announced tonight.
More than 40,000 workers will take part in the strike, and a similar strike is also planned for July 27.
The companies involved in the strikes are: Network Rail, Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, Transpennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands trains and GTR (including Gatwick Express).
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The rail industry and the government need to understand that this dispute is not going to just go away.
‘They must seriously work on a wage offer that helps to solve the crisis in the cost of living, job security for our members and good working conditions.
‘Recent proposals from Network Rail fell short in the area of wages and safety related to maintenance work.
‘And the train operators haven’t even made us an offer of wages in recent negotiations.
“Now that Grant Shapps (Secretary of Transport) has given up his hopeless hopes of the job of Prime Minister, he can now go back to his day job and help solve this mess.
“We remain open to negotiations, but we will continue our campaign until we reach a negotiated settlement.”
Individual, Today another strike has been announced for July 30th when drivers at eight railway companies go on strike over wages in a row, their union Aslef announced.
Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: “By announcing even more strike dates, the RMT has dropped any pretense that this is about reaching a deal.
“It is clear that the interests of the passengers and our staff come second after the political campaign of the union bosses.”
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, which coordinates rail services, said tonight: “This is a hugely disappointing announcement by the RMT leadership that will disrupt passenger summer plans, undermine struggling businesses and disrupt the industry’s recovery.
“We want to give our people a pay rise, but asking taxpayers to take on more of the burden when they’ve already contributed £600 per household during the pandemic, or expecting passengers to fund this by paying more for their tickets, isn’t it.” fair or sustainable.
“Instead, we have a responsibility to make changes to long-established working practices so that we can adapt to post-Covid travel patterns, keep our railways up to date and provide our passengers with a more punctual and reliable service.”
“Instead of organizing counterproductive strikes, we’re asking the RMT leadership to keep talking so we can come up with a deal that works for our people, our passengers and taxpayers.”
It comes after a week of outage in June in which RMT train crews ran 24 hours on three full days.
Some train services had to be halted altogether, and many seaside towns were out of service during the strike, including Bournemouth, Dorset; Blackpool, Lancashire; Margate, Kent; Llandudno, North Wales; and Skegness, Lincolnshire. Cornwall also had no trains.
This was Britain’s largest national railway strike in 30 years.
A Transport Ministry spokesman said: “The Foreign Secretary said yesterday that recent talks were just for show as the RMT has been making plans on how best to create further misery for passengers in the UK. These strikes will be a kick in the teeth for millions of people who have raised £600 per household to keep the railway going during the pandemic.
‘The rail industry must modernize and be brought into the 21st century for the benefit of both passengers and staff. We cannot ignore that and we are very disappointed that more strikes are being announced.’
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