Brits are set for more nightmare train journeys as rail firms announced more strikes next month over work conditions, job security and pay.
Members of the train drivers’ union Aslef will walk out at 12 train companies on September 15, threatening travel chaos across the country.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) earlier announced its members at nine train operating companies as well as Network Rail (NR) will walk out from midday on September 26, for 24 hours.
Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said: “We regret that, once again, passengers are going to be inconvenienced, because we don’t want to go on strike – withdrawing our labour, although a fundamental human right, is always a last resort for a trade union – but the train companies have forced our hand.
“They want train drivers to take a real-terms pay cut – to work just as hard this year as last, but for 10% less.
“Because inflation is now in double figures and heading higher – much higher, according to some forecasts – and yet the train companies have offered us nothing.
“And this for train drivers who kept Britain moving – key workers and goods around the country – throughout the pandemic and who have not had an increase in salary since 2019.
“We want the companies, which are making big profits, and paying their chief executives enormous salaries and bonuses, to make a proper pay offer to help our members keep up with the increase in the cost of living.
“That’s why we are calling on the companies today to do the right thing, the decent thing, and come back to the negotiating table with an offer our members can accept."
Aslef members at Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, Greter Anglia, Great Western Railway, Hull Trains, LNER, London Overground, Northern Trains, Southeastern, TransPennine Express and West Midlands Trains will strike on September 15.
Rail workers likely to be involved in the TSSA strike TransPennine Express, West Midlands Trains, Avanti West Coast, c2c, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway, LNER and Southeastern.
TSSA union leader Manuel Cortes earlier said: “The dead hand of Grant Shapps is sadly stopping train operating companies from making a revised, meaningful offer.
“Frankly, he either sits across the negotiating table with our union or gets out of the way to allow railway bosses to freely negotiate with us, as they have done in the past.
“The reason for the current impasse lies squarely at Shapps’ door and passengers are paying a high price for his incompetence and intransigence.
“I welcome the fact that negotiations are ongoing with Network Rail and the gap towards a resolution is narrowing. Time will tell whether a deal can be done to avert our next strike.
“I will be standing on our picket line in Liverpool and will be encouraging fellow delegates and Labour MPs to do likewise, so they can rightly show they stand shoulder to shoulder with those fighting the Tories’ cost-of-living crisis.”
The strike action will coincide with the Labour Party conference in Liverpool.
Earlier this month RMT members at Network Rail and a further 14 train operators went on strike as part of a long-running dispute.
Around 40,000 workers refused to work, with thousands joining pickets outside stations.
A strike on the London Underground also caused havoc as people struggled to travel.
Earlier today Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer ruled out joining workers on a picket line, insisting that his focus was on forming the next government.
He told Channel 5’s Jeremy Vine: “When it comes to industrial action, I completely understand why people are voting to go on strike, I understand how much they’re struggling – wages have been stagnant for the best part of 10 years, we’ve now got a cost-of-living crisis, so prices are going up.”
Asked if he would join TSSA workers on the picket line he said: “No. I want a Labour government, I want to be a Labour prime minister. You can’t sit around the Cabinet table resolving issues and then walk onto a picket line, they are different jobs.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “For the eighth time this summer, union leaders are choosing self-defeating strike action over constructive talks, not only disrupting the lives of millions who rely on these services but jeopardising the future of the railways and their own members’ livelihoods.
“These reforms deliver the modernisations our rail network urgently needs, are essential to the future of rail, and will happen. Strikes will not change this.”
A Network Rail spokesperson added: “We agreed a deal on pay and modernisation with some TSSA members a few weeks ago, and as the union has said, we’re making good progress in talks with the rest of their membership.
“We’ll continue to meet with the TSSA over the coming days and weeks, and encourage them to continue working with us to find a breakthrough and avert strike action on September 26.”
