Three more days of rail strikes announced by RMT for July

A fresh wave of rail strikes will be held next month in the deadlocked row over pay, jobs and conditions, it has been announced

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) said 20,000 of its members at 14 train companies will walk out on July 20, 22 and 29.

The Government hit back, accusing the union of “targeting two iconic international sporting events” by coinciding with the fourth and fifth Ashes Test and The Open golf championship.

The RMT said train operators had failed to make a new pay offer to resolve the long-running dispute.

The RMT said that despite repeated statements that it was willing to enter further negotiations, neither the rail operators nor the Government have asked it to any meetings.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “This latest phase of action will show the country just how important railway staff are to the running of the rail industry.

“My team of negotiators and I are available 24/7 for talks with the train operating companies and Government ministers.

“Yet quite incredibly neither party has made any attempt whatsoever to arrange any meetings or put forward a decent offer that can help us reach a negotiated solution.

“The Government continues to shackle the companies and will not allow them to put forward a package that can settle this dispute.

“Our members have now voted three times to take strike action over the last 12 months – the most recent of which coincided with having the full details of the substandard offer from the rail operators.

“They voted by 9-1 to renew their strike mandate and RMT will continue its industrial campaign until we reach a negotiated settlement on pay, working conditions and job security.”

A Department for Transport spokesman said: “The RMT leadership’s decision to call strikes targeting two iconic international sporting events, as children and families begin their summer holidays, will disrupt people’s plans across the country.

“After a year of industrial action, passengers and rail workers alike are growing tired of union bosses playing politics with their lives. It’s high time the union leaders realised that strikes no longer have the impact they once did and are simply driving people away from the railway.

“Union leaders should do the right thing and give their members a chance to vote on these pay offers.”

A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: “More strikes are totally unnecessary. After a year of industrial action all the RMT has achieved is losing their members more money than they would have received in the pay offers they refused to put out to a vote, despite having agreed the terms with the negotiators in the room.

“We have now made three offers that the RMT executive have blocked without a convincing explanation.

“We remain open to talks and we have said repeatedly that we want to give our people a pay rise, but until the union leadership and executive is united in what it wants and engages in good faith with the 30% shortfall in revenue the industry is continuing to grapple with post-Covid, it is difficult to move forward.

“Sadly our staff, our customers and the communities across the country which rely on a thriving railway are the ones that are suffering as a result.”

The strike announcement comes a year after the first RMT walkout.

Union members in train companies walked out on June 21 last year.

There have been a series of rail strikes since then, as well as industrial action by hundreds of thousands of other workers including nurses, junior doctors and teachers.