Rail passengers should expect more delays on Saturday as strike action by drivers and other workers continues over pay, working conditions, and benefits.

Driver overtime has been prohibited due to a strike announced by the Rail, Maritime, and Transport union (RMT) at 14 train operating companies.

Aslef union drivers went on strike on Friday, halting rail service throughout large swathes of England, and causing widespread disruption.
Even though trains will start and conclude service earlier than usual on Saturday, delays are still possible for customers.

In response to the RMT’s “road-map” suggested last month, the Rail Delivery Group has apparently answered.

A week after our invitation to try to negotiate a resolution to the national issue, the RDG has openly responded, as indicated by general secretary Mick Lynch.

Even while we’re glad the railway companies want to keep talking to us next week, we’ll need a fresh proposal if we’re going to finally settle this dispute. After their last proposal was rejected, we need to figure out what else we can do.

“Our industrial campaign will continue, including continuing our strike action this Saturday, until we reach a negotiated settlement on working conditions, job security, and pay.”A reasonable settlement can be negotiated with the help of RMT’s precise plan, and the firm is accessible for discussions around the clock.

“Ministers now need to break the impasse and allow rail bosses to submit a revised offer,” the story states.around the course of the previous 18 months, we have negotiated numerous contracts with railroads all around the country.

This disagreement is ultimately the responsibility of the Department of Transport, but we have been unable to settle it thus far.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan told the PA news agency from a picket line in Euston, north London, “The feedback we get – and we talk to drivers every day – is that they’re in it for the long haul.” There is no evidence of weakness or lack of resolve, he continued, since “you’ve got to remember some of our members, when we get to the end of this year, will be five years without a pay rise.”
He remarked, “This is purely a political response to the dispute,” signaling he does not envision a resolution to the matter very soon. Until ministers quit intervening in railroad firms, nothing will change.

Robert Nisbet, a spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents train operators, has stated that Aslef must demonstrate “movement” on modifications to working practices.
Mr. Nisbet told BBC Radio 4’s Today program that negotiations between the RDG and Aslef have been on hold since April “because they will not accept that core principle.”
When pressed further, he admitted, “We are looking for movement on that.”
Mr. Nisbet has remarked that “the biggest problem here at the moment with Aslef is that they won’t accept a link to changing the way that the business functions.”

Since commuters aren’t returning in the numbers forecasted, we must face the reality that the sector has evolved much since Covid.

Since income has dropped by 30%, “we’re asking unions to be realistic, to look at the situation as it is right now,” the company said.

In order to avoid having to pay drivers extra to work on Sundays, the corporation would like not to.
Aslef claims that no railway service has enough drivers to run on both Saturday and Sunday without forcing some of its employees to work on their days off.
Speaking for the Department of Transport, they expressed their frustration that Aslef and RMT had coordinated their strikes to inflict as much inconvenience as possible on the penultimate weekend of the summer holidays, after taxpayers had supported railway workers throughout the pandemic. There are reasonable proposals on the table from both unions; for example, RMT members at Network Rail have approved a proposal that would increase their average pay to £65,000 per year.

Long-term investments that would benefit passengers, rail workers, and taxpayers are being delayed, sadly, because of the continuing strike.

Friday marked the end of the public comment period on the controversial proposals to eliminate most railway ticket offices, which had already provoked hundreds of thousands of responses.

The Rail Delivery Group stated that the industry would do maximum effort to maintain service levels. That the RMT and Aslef leaderships’ strikes are designed to disrupt the plans of passengers who want to attend various sporting events and the end of the summer holidays, so hurting local businesses and forcing more automobiles to be driven on the highways, is without dispute.

Despite the fact that a 13% hike in base pay over two years would be more than enough to settle the dispute, the RMT has continually denied its members the ability to vote on such a proposal.

We welcome any attempt to resolve this issue and are always open to talks, but the manner and timing of the RMT leadership’s offer on the eve of strike action last week suggests it is not a serious attempt to go further.