Rail union members will vote on new strike action 'soon', RMT's Mick Lynch says

11 February 2023, 17:47

Rail workers will 'soon' be balloted on strike action planned for later this year, RMT union boss Mick Lynch revealed.

Union members yesterday rejected the latest "dreadful" pay offer from employers the Rail Delivery Group and Network Rail.

Lynch, whose body has 40,000 members, told the BBC that rail workers feel "under attack" as the government seeks to "make an example" out of striking railway staff.

He also said the RMT is seeking an overlapping "continuous mandate" from its members, allowing the union to stage strikes until the summer.

Lynch said: "Ministers have told me that face to face - Mark Harper and [transport minister] Huw Merriman - that they can't offer us anything fresh because it would set a precedent for nurses and other public sector workers, and they want to hold this line.

“We want to keep talking to the companies. Our position is that we would like them to come to the table with a non-conditional offer … but the government is telling them they can’t do that.”

Network Rail and the Rail Delivery Group have offered a 9% pay rise in the current offer.

But the RMT has demanded any deal meets the cost of inflation, which is currently 10%.

Read more: RMT rejects 'dreadful' offer from rail companies to settle row over pay and working conditions

Read more: 'We're in it for the long haul': Rail union boss warns strikes could last for years as workers walk out again

Transport Secretary Mark Harper said: "It is now clear that no realistic offer is ever going to be good enough for the RMT leadership."

Network Rail chief negotiator Tim Shoveller said the RMT was "condemning its members to a further round of fruitless, pointless and costly strikes".

He added: "We have made multiple concessions, compromises and offers, while the RMT has shifted on nothing.

"It's time for a second referendum on our new, revised offer and time to end this and work together to rebuild our railway."

Ambulance workers stage fresh strikes in pay dispute

Last week just under 2,000 Abellio bus drivers staged walkouts, affecting routes in south and west London, while in Scotland rolling teacher strikes rumbled on with education workers on strike in South Lanarkshire and the Western Isles.

Simon Weller, Aslef's assistant general secretary, said: "I don't know whether to point the finger of blame at the ineptitude of the Department for Transport or the Rail Delivery Group.

"We would struggle to recommend a deal of a 4% pay rise for last year and 4% this year if there were no conditions attached, but we are being asked to give up collective bargaining and effectively agree to a no-strike deal.

"Obviously it was going to be rejected - it was designed to fail."

ASLEF's boss Mick Whelan says his union is in industrial action for the 'long haul'