Despite the fact that members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) workers’ union offered a 5 percent pay riseheavily discounted train journeys for family members and cash bonuses of up to £900 each in a fight to avoid further strikes, they announced another walk-out on July 27.
Less than 48 hours later, the Aslef train drivers’ union will go on strike for pay, while the RMT has announced two more days of strike on August 18 and 20, affecting 14 train operators and Network Rail and involving 40,000 employees.
Meanwhile, members of the Transport Salried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) have also supported union actions in July in recent days.
Only one in ten trains could run during the Aslef strike on July 30, worse than the one in five trains that continued to run during the three days of RMT action in June. It marks the first national strike since 1995.
The Transport Salried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), which represents station and ticket office workers, said workers in the southeast of the country will also strike over pay, job security and conditions.
Plans to strike were announced shortly after some Aslef union members voted to accept a 5 per cent wage offer, plus bonuses, from ScotRail, halting the potential for strikes in Scotland.
The polls close at the end of July strike actions at Avanti West Coast, CrossCountry and Direct Rail Services.
Mick Whelan, Aslef general secretary, said: “We don’t want to go on strike – strikes are the result of a failure of negotiations – and this union has been on strike since I was elected GS in 2011, until this year, for a handful of days.
“But we have been forced into this position by the train companies, driven by the Tory government. The drivers at the companies where we strike have had a real pay cut in the past three years – since April 2019.”
Here’s what you need to know about the RMT and Aslef strikes on July 27 and 30 and other potential union strikes.
When is the next train strike?
On Wednesday, July 13, 2022, it was announced that employees of Network Rail and RMT will go on strike for 24 hours on July 27. On July 14, Aslef announced that drivers would leave on Saturday, July 30, leaving only one in ten trains running.
Two more RMT strikes will take place on August 18 and 20 in a protest against job security, wages and working conditions.
Which rail operators are affected?
Arriva Rail London, Chiltern Railways, Greater Anglia, Great Western, Hull Trains, LNER, Southeastern and West Midlands Trains will be affected by the July 30 Aslef strikes.
Southeastern, which is wholly owned by the Department for Transport (DfT) and operates train services between London and Kent, as well as parts of East Sussex, will be affected by the TSSA strikes. Stations potentially affected include London St Pancras, Victoria, Charing Cross and Cannon Street, as well as Dover Priory, Ramsgate, Ashford International, Dartford and Sevenoaks.
The RMT train strikes in August affect Network Rail and the following operators: 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).
The TSSA is also currently voting members at West Midlands Trains, Great Western Railway, Greater Anglia, TransPennine Express for industrial action.
Will the Tube be affected by more strikes?
The London Underground came to a standstill 24 hours a day on June 21, 2022 as RMT members decided in a row to go on strike over how Transport for London is cutting operating costs.
So far, the RMT has not announced another strike this summer, but the members renewed their strike mandate on June 24, meaning they have the right to strike again on a date set by the union’s National Executive Committee.
RMT leader Mick Lynch said: “Transport for London and the Mayor of London should seriously rethink their plans for hundreds of job cuts and seek hard-earned pensions from workers who serve Londoners on a daily basis.”
Meanwhile, the nighttime action continues to affect the Central, Jubilee, Northern and Victoria lines every Friday and Saturday through December 6.
Why are employees on strike?
The Aslef strikes are all about wages. Mick Whelan, Aslef general secretary, says members have not had a pay rise since 2019.
“We want an increase in line with the cost of living – we want to be able to buy in 2022 what we could buy in 2021 – for those members – who, as you recall, were the people who moved key workers and goods around the world. country during the pandemic,” he said.
The August RMT train strikes (and the July 27 rail strike) are the latest in the union dispute over job security, wages and working conditions. 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 should be serious about providing a wage offer that helps address the crisis in the cost of living, job security for our members and good working conditions.
“Recent proposals from Network Rail fall far short in the area of wages and safety around maintenance work. And the train companies have not even made us a wage offer in recent negotiations.
“We remain open to discussions, but we will continue our campaign until we reach a negotiated settlement.”
Meanwhile, TSSA members protest over pay, jobs and conditions.
“If ministers had any sense, they would come to the table to sort this out so that we have a fair settlement for workers hailed as heroes during the pandemic,” said TSSA Secretary General Manuel Cortes.
Can I get a refund or travel on another service if my train is cancelled?
According to consumer group Which? the process differs depending on which train company someone travels with and customers can only “claim compensation for a delay in the event of a train strike based on the replacement or emergency timetable for train or replacement bus services”.
What is the government doing about it?
The government has already impending new minimum service requirements that would require a certain number of trains to run during a strike. However, ministers have warned it could take months to draft the new laws.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary who has dropped out of the race to become the next Tory leader, was quick to condemn the strikes.
“With a salary of almost £60,000, it is not fair for train drivers to hurt those with lower wages with more strikes,” he wrote on Twitter.