Shortly after announcing a series of December strikes, the RMT have announced further strikes on Christmas Eve and 27th December.
Rail Union, RMT, have announced a number of new dates for strike action after rejecting the latest offer from The Rail Delivery Group. The offer, which would have seen rail workers receive an 8% pay rise across 2022 and 2023 has been rejected after bosses put it to a referendum. They are now urging workers to proceed with walkouts on 13-14 and 16-17 December.
In addition to these planned walkouts, the union have announced additional strike action across Christmas from 6 pm on the 24th of December to 6 am on the 27th of December. This news will likely result in chaos as for many families up and down the country.
A referendum will now take place for union members to decide whether to proceed with strikes or not. If approved, it will be another signal of intent from RMT members that they aren’t going away until they receive what they’re asking for.
Why the offer was rejected
While on the face of it, an 8% pay rise for workers along with other reforms that the Rail Delivery Group believed would benefit rail staff sounds like a reasonable offer. For RMT, though, the offer didn’t do enough to protect jobs. In a statement, they said:
“The RDG is offering 4% in 2022 and 2023 which is conditional on RMT members accepting vast changes to working practices, huge job losses, driver-only operated (DOO) trains on all companies and the closure of all ticket offices.”
The Union’s General Secretary, Mick Lynch, added:
“We have rejected this offer as it does not meet any of our criteria for securing a settlement on long-term job security, a decent pay rise and protecting working conditions.
“The RDG and Department for Transport (DfT), who sets their mandate, both knew this offer would not be acceptable to RMT members.
“If this plan was implemented, it would not only mean the loss of thousands of jobs but the use of unsafe practices such as DOO and would leave our railways chronically understaffed.”
Playing fast and loose with Christmas
Tim Shoveller, The Chief Negotiator for Network Rail, has slammed Mick Lynch and RMT claiming that their response to the latest offer “exposes their true priority” which in his view is to “use the British public and Network Rail workers as pawns in a fight with the government.”
Shoveller added that the RMT were “playing fast and loose with people’s Christmas plans” and that a referendum was pointless because the results are already set in stone.
The Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, echoed Shoveller’s views without going in quite as hard. He said:
“It’s incredibly disappointing that, despite a new and improved deal offering job security and a fair pay rise, the RMT is not only continuing with upcoming industrial action but has called more strikes over Christmas.
“The government has played its part by facilitating a fair and decent offer but, by instructing its members to reject it, the RMT has failed to play its part and our rail network now faces more harmful disruption rather than helpful discussion.”
Winter of discontent
Rail workers aren’t the only group set to strike this winter. Earlier today, the GMB Union announced that over 10,000 ambulance workers across nine trusts in the United Kingdom will strike on the 21st and 28th of December.
Meanwhile, firefighters and control room staff can start voting today over whether they should take strike action or not over their 5% pay rise. Members of the Fire Brigades Union will have until the 30th of January to cast their votes.
Further strike action this winter includes:
- 10,000 paramedics to strike in England and Wales.
- 100,000 nurses to stage a walk out on the 15th and 20th December in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
- Further Royal Mail strikes across the whole of December, including on Christmas Eve and the day before.
- School teachers in Scotland have announced 16 new strike dates in January and February.
- 600 workers at housing and homeless charity, Shelter are to strike for two weeks this month for the first time in history.
Final thought
The government has been bracing itself for severe industry strike action since the summer when they put forward new legislation that would allow businesses to bring in agency workers to replace those who strike.
With further talks between the RDG and RMT planned for later today, perhaps we can live in hope that a resolution that suits all parties is found. However, as the two parties seem way apart in what they deem as “suitable”, we should all accept that strike action across the rail network is going to continue for a good while yet.