Sophie Wills
Sat, 26 August 2023
Secretary-General of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) Mick Lynch stands with union members at a picket line outside Euston Station
RMT general-secretary Mick Lynch says “pay is no longer the primary issue” and accused industry chiefs of “attacking” workers as a new wave of strike action begins. Thousands of rail workers staged a mass walk out today (Saturday, August 26), sparking bank holiday travel chaos amid huge events such as Leeds and Reading festivals.
Drivers represented by ASLEF are holding a separate strike next week on Friday (September 1) while the union will also ban overtime on the same day as the second RMT strike on Saturday, September 2. Disputes between unions and train companies have been dragging on for well over a year, but Mr Lynch said that pay is no longer in the spotlight after the recent closure of hundreds of ticket offices.
He told Sky News: “Pay is not the primary issue because they are attacking our people and telling them they’re going to be made redundant. My members won’t get a pay deal if they’re made unemployed.
“So, just on the stations they want to get rid of a quarter of staff. You don’t get any pay if you’re not employed by the company. The Government is saying they’re going to take people out of the ticket offices and employ them in the stations, but what they’re actually going to do is give them P45s and say you’re out of the industry.”
Mr Lynch said in order for the strikes to be resolved the very structure of the rail industry would need to change. He added: “They’ve got some demands that they’re making on our members about how they want them to work - they want them to have new contracts, they want to introduce lower pay rates [even lower] than the ones we’ve got now. So if we can sort that stuff out, we can move on then to dealing with pay.
“And if they want to make us a pay proposal without the condition that we have to accept massive job cuts then we will consider that proposal. But we’ve never had a suggestion that we can have a pay rise independent of these changes they want to make at any stage in the last two or three years.”
What dates are the train strikes in August and September?
RMT are set to strike on the following dates in August and September 2023:
Saturday, August 26
Saturday, September 2
Drivers represented by ASLEF are holding a separate strike on Friday, September 1, while the union will also ban overtime on the same day as the second RMT strike on Saturday, September 2. The last strikes took place over three days on Thursday, July 20,Saturday, July 22 and Saturday, July 29.
Which train operating companies are affected by the strikes?
The 14 train operating companies affected by the most recent RMT train strikes are:
Avanti West Coast
c2c
Chiltern Railways
CrossCountry (also affected by industrial action on Saturday 9 September)
East Midlands Railway
Gatwick Express
Great Northern
Great Western Railway
Greater Anglia
Heathrow Express
Island Line - ASLEF strike only
London Northwestern Railway
LNER
Northern
South Western Railway
Southeastern
Southern
Stansted Express
Thameslink
TransPennine Express
Transport for Wales (not on strike, but service changes on some routes)
West Midlands Railway
The companies affected by the driver union’s action (ASLEF) are:
Avanti West Coast
Chiltern Railways
c2c
CrossCountry
East Midlands Railway
Greater Anglia
GTR Great Northern Thameslink
Great Western Railway
Island Line
LNER
Northern Trains
Southeastern
Southern/Gatwick Express
South Western Railway
TransPennine Express
West Midlands Trains
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