Train drivers at eight rail companies, including LNER which runs services through the North East, are to stage a 24-hour Saturday strike. Members of Aslef at Chiltern, GWR, LNER, London Overground, Northern, Southeastern and West Midlands will walk out on July 30.
Drivers on Greater Anglia will also strike on July 23, and those on Hull Trains will strike on July 16 and 23. It threatens to cause yet more disruption to rail services and follows Wednesday’s announcement by the RMT union of a strike on July 27.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “We don’t want to go on strike – strikes are the result of a failure of negotiation – and this union, since I was elected general secretary in 2011, has only ever been on strike, until this year, for a handful of days. We don’t want to inconvenience passengers, not least because our friends and families use public transport too, and we believe in building trust in the railways in Britain, and we don’t want to lose money by going on strike.
“But we’ve been forced into this position by the train companies, driven by the Tory Government. The drivers at the companies where we are striking have had a real-terms pay cut over the last three years, since April 2019. These companies are offering us nothing, saying their hands have been tied by the Government. That means, in real terms, with inflation running ahead at 9%, 10%, and even 11% this year, according to which index you use, that they are being told to take a real-terms pay cut, and that is not acceptable.
“Strike action is, now, the only option available but we are always open to talks if the train companies, or the Government, want to talk to us and make a fair and sensible offer.”
On Wednesday, RMT leaders made the strike announcement after rejecting a new offer from Network Rail which they described as “paltry”. The offer was for a 4% pay rise backdated to January, another 2% next year and a further 2% conditional on achieving “modernisation milestones”.
The RMT said it has yet to receive a pay offer or guarantees over job losses from the train operating companies (TOCs). The union said it will be consulting other unions that have delivered mandates for strike action in the coming days, amid talk of co-ordinated walkouts.
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