UK rail workers will begin Britain’s biggest rail strike in three decades on Tuesday after unions rejected a last-minute offer from train companies, bringing services nationwide to a near standstill.
The failure of negotiations means about 40,000 staff at 13 train operating companies and Network Rail will walk out on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday, bringing commuter services to a standstill nationwide and threatening to cause transport chaos in London. Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government refused to intervene, saying the dispute was between the companies and their workers.
In the House of Commons, transport secretary Grant Shapps called that analysis a “fundamental misunderstanding”, and said the money missing from the railways budget was down to lower takings from fares after passenger numbers failed to recover to pre-pandemic levels.Figures released by the Office of Road and Rail on Thursday reveal the extent of rail’s retreat, with total journeys at only 62% of the pre-pandemic tally in the quarter through March.
Yet the RMT argues that many of the strikers are among the lowest paid on the railway networks, including cleaners. The union representing most train drivers, ASLEF, is not joining the national strike.
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