Due to another driver strike in the ongoing pay issue, train service will be severely limited on Friday.
Services will be significantly impacted; they will start later and end earlier than usual, and some locations won’t have trains all day.
With no scheduled meetings and no indication of a resolution, the conflict, which began more than a year ago, is still at a standstill.
On Saturday, in conjunction with the Rail, Maritime and Transport union’s strike over pay, jobs, and conditions, members of the drivers union Aslef will also restrict overtime.
Both unions accuse the government of sabotaging any prospect of a settlement by preventing railway operators from presenting an offer that they may suggest to their members.
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Ministers deny getting involved in the argument.
Aslef claimed that because no train company employs enough drivers to offer a proper service without workers working on their days off, the strike on Friday will force firms to cancel trains across the nation and the ban on overtime will “seriously disrupt” the network.
Reasonably, our members want to be able to purchase what they could in 2019.
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, and West Midlands Trains are among the 16 companies that are impacted.
The general secretary of Aslef, Mick Whelan, stated: “We don’t want to take this action, but the train companies and the Government that supports them have forced us into this place because they refuse to sit down and talk to us and have not made a fair and sensible pay offer to train drivers who have not had one for four years – since 2019 – while prices have increased in that time by more than 12%.
The Government is content to let travelers and businesses suffer because they mistakenly think they can intimidate us into obedience. They don’t care about the customers or the British railway, but they won’t destroy us.Since 2019—four years—these companies’ train drivers have not seen compensation increases despite skyrocketing inflation. We haven’t spoken to the employers since Wednesday, April 26, and we haven’t spoken to the government since Friday, January 6. We haven’t had a meeting, a phone call, a text message, or an email either.
This demonstrates the disdain that British businesses and the government have for customers, employees, and public transportation.They are content to let this drag on forever, but we are committed to secure a fair wage raise for both men and women who haven’t experienced one in the past four years despite double-digit inflation. Reasonably, our members want to be able to purchase what they could in 2019.”
Passengers hoping to enjoy the conclusion of the summer vacation would be further hampered by any additional strike action by the Aslef leadership.
“Further strike action by the Aslef leadership is unnecessary and will cause more disruption to passengers looking to enjoy the end of the summer holidays,” a Rail Delivery Group representative said.The union leadership has its head in the sand and won’t present its members with our fair and reasonable offer. By the end of 2023, the offer would raise the typical driver base wage for a four-day workweek without overtime from £60,000 to approximately £65,000.We want to raise wages for our employees, but that has always been contingent on carrying out smart, essential reforms that would improve services for our clients.
“We implore the Aslef leadership to acknowledge the significant financial difficulties the rail industry is currently experiencing and join forces with us to build a more reliable and strong railway system for the future.”
– The strike on Friday falls on the last day of public comment on contentious plans to close the majority of railway ticket offices, which drew hundreds of thousands of responses.