The RMT and Aslef unions have both announced a round of fresh national railway strikes.
The main strikes will be by Aslef, which has announced three more dates for national rail strikes, having rejected a pay offer from the train operating companies it described as “risible”.
The RMT has instead announced a one-day strike.
The Aslef strikes will take place on Friday 12th May, Wednesday 31st May, and Saturday 3rd June — which will affect people travelling to the Eurovision final in Liverpool on Saturday 13th May, and the FA cup final in London and the Epsom Derby which both take place on 3rd June.
The RMT will strike on Saturday 13th May – the day after the first of the Aslef strikes.
As with previous national rail strikes, although three dates have been announced, there will likely be some cancellations and early closures on the evening before the strike action, and disruption to services the following morning.
“Our executive committee met this morning [Thursday] and rejected a risible proposal we received from the RDG, a pressure group which represents some of the train companies, and lobbies on their behalf, late on Wednesday afternoon,” said Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary. “The proposal – of just 4% – was clearly not designed to be accepted as inflation is still running north of 10% and our members at these companies have not had an increase for four years.”
The union also said that it will be withdrawing non-contractual overtime from Monday 15th to Saturday 20th May inclusive, as well as on Saturday 13th May and Thursday 1st June.
That could see unplanned train cancellations due to a shortage of train drivers.
Aslef mainly represents the train drivers on the following 16 train operating companies:
- Avanti West Coast
- Chiltern Railways
- CrossCountry
- East Midlands Railway
- Gatwick Express
- Great Western Railway (GWR)
- Greater Anglia
- Great Northern
- Thameslink
- London North Eastern Railway (LNER)
- Northern Trains
- Southeastern
- Southern
- South Western Railway depot drivers and SWR Island Line
- TransPennine Express
- West Midlands Trains.
Aslef says that it has met representatives of the employers, under the framework of the Rail Industry Recovery Group, on eight occasions to try to find a resolution to this long-running dispute and a pay rise for drivers who have not had an increase since 2019.
A Rail Delivery Group Spokesperson said: “This is disappointing news for our customers and staff, more strike action is totally unnecessary and will only heap more pressure on an industry already facing an acute financial crisis. Senselessly targeting both the final of Eurovision and the FA cup final is disappointing for all those planning to attend.
“After many weeks of negotiations with the ASLEF leadership today, we made a revised and fair offer including a pay rise of 8% over two years. It would have introduced overdue, common-sense improvements already in place in parts of the network, which would will see more trains running on time for passengers. Sadly, this has been rejected.
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Updated 17:50: The RMT has also announced a strike.
Absolutely disgraceful
Your striking
Affecting thousands of people who want to work but can’t
I am not striking at all – it’s the railway unions that are striking.
Pretty sure it wasn’t “disgraceful” to you when rail staff risked their own safety and their families to get key workers safely to and from work during the pandemic?
Well said
I am really annoyed as I have holiday booked & planned to start using my senior railcard for some days out this strike is now putting that in jepody. Also I need to get to Liverpool on 22nd June and my bags will be too heavy to handle along with a walking stick & coach would take too long.
There are no June dates yet zMaybe get a taxi