Walkouts in a winter wonderland. Cross country train staff latest to strike as RMT kicks of festive stoppages
13 December 2022, 08:36 | Updated: 13 December 2022, 16:50
Britons face further misery after a rail workers' union announced more strikes over Christmas on top of mass walkouts already set to take place this month.
Members of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) at CrossCountry will strike on Boxing Day and December 27, affecting services in large swathes of the country including Cornwall, the Midlands, Wales, and northern England through to Scottish cities as far north as Aberdeen.
RMT members walked out on Tuesday morning, beginning 48 hours of strike action that's set to cripple Britain’s transport network.
The strikes are expected to affect upwards of 80% of rail services, with 40,000 RMT members at Network Rail walking out across 14 train operators.
It comes the day after freezing rail conditions brought many services to a halt, with widespread delays and cancellations causing chaos across National Rail and London Underground services.
More than 63% of RMT members at Network Rail voted against the proposed improvements to the deal – a dispute that relates to jobs, pay and conditions.
Tuesday marks the start of 4 weeks of strike action set to cause chaos over the Christmas period.
RMT’s general secretary, Mick Lynch, described the strike action as a “huge rejection of Network Rail’s substandard offer showing that our members are determined to take further strike action in pursuit of a negotiated settlement”.
Christmas strike calendar - 2 week forecast
A fortnight of walkouts from Britain's public sector workers are set to kick in from today, these are the key dates worth knowing.
- 13 & 14 December and 16 & 17 December will see widespread RMT strike action across the rail network
- 14 & 15 December and 23 & 24 December will see 115,000 Royal Mail strike over pay and conditions.
- 16 - 23 December will see civil service strike action take place.
- 15 December will see nurses strike across England, Wales and Northern Ireland, with more action planned for 20 December.
- 16, 17 & 18 December will see widespread strike action by Heathrow baggage handlers.
- 16 & 18 December and 22 & 23 December will see strike action across Eurostar services.
- 23, 24, 25 & 26 December will see strike action by the UK Border Force across all entry points to the UK.
Month of rail chaos begins with first 48-hour strike as nursing walkout looms
He added: “The government is refusing to lift a finger to prevent these strikes and it is clear they want to make effective strike action illegal in Britain.”
Commuters have been warned that early and late services will be worst affected, with only one in five train services operating between 07:30 - 18:30 GMT.
It coincides with a wave of public sector strike action of pay and conditions, with bus drivers, Royal Mail workers, nurses and baggage handlers also downing tools this week.
The action is set to hit independent businesses hard during a busy Christmas shopping period, as many attempt to claw back sales following the pandemic.
On Monday, Network Rail said the RMT union was causing "misery" after its members rejected a fresh pay deal which held the potential to avoid strike action.
Mr Lynch criticised the government for not doing enough to stop the proposed walkouts, noting the governments hard stance on industrial action and the proposed introduction of tough new anti-strike laws.
He had previously noted the rail operators had been “instructed” to accept such strikes by the government, who had “torpedoed” the dispute resolution process by ordering operators not to revise offers.
Tuesday’s strike action will be followed by a new wave of strike action planned between December 24 and 27.
Strikes are also set to take place between 3-4 and 6-7 January.
Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said: "The RMT leadership needs to think long and hard about what to do next. Further strike action will cause further misery for the rail industry and for their members who will lose pay.
"This news is especially frustrating given that we learnt today that colleagues represented by Unite union have accepted the very same offer put to RMT members. The RMT are the outliers here. They need to stop playing politics and work with us to bring this dispute to an end.
"There is clearly a significant number of Network Rail colleagues who want this deal but are caught up by these needless strikes and collective bargaining.
"Our offer, which is worth over 9% with a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and no changes to anyone's terms and conditions, remains on the table.”
