Rail unions

To continue my reminiscences of decades as a railway trackworker, the development of Health and Safety law on the railway has been a bit of a double-edged sword. It has generally been to the benefit of workers. Legislation has enabled us to stop the more egregious practices. But it has also made us a bit lazy, with workers looking to legislation rather than taking direct action and sometimes being fobbed off despite being in the right. In the early days of my job there were no health and safety reps as such. The job was usually done by one of the staff reps as a secondary role. The supervisor...

Train drivers’ union Aslef called one-day strikes and a nine-day overtime ban in its long-running dispute over pay with the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) Drivers will strike at East Midlands Rail and London North Eastern on Saturday 2 December; at Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Great Northern Thameslink, and West Midlands on Sunday 3 December; at C2C and Greater Anglia on Tuesday 5 December; at Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South West Rail main line, SWR depot drivers, and Island Line on Wednesday 6 December; at CrossCountry and Great Wester on Thursday 7 December; and at Northern...

The Rail Delivery Group has made a new offer to the RMT rail union to settle the long-running dispute over pay and conditions at mainline Train Operating Companies (TOCs). The offer is a 5% pay increase for 2022-3, or a flat-rate £1,750 increase, whichever is higher for a given grade. Formally, the offer is “strings free”, in that it does not require RMT to accept job cuts or changes to terms and conditions. It also includes a no-compulsory-redundancies guarantee running through to the end of 2024. The offer also puts the withdrawal of the ticket office closure programme in writing, and ends...

Aviation sector bosses globally are pursuing rapid expansion despite the climate crisis, with the International Civil Aviation Organization predicting doubling of air traffic by the late 2030s. Even in the UK, with its already over-expanded aviation industry, the Government’s climate-indifferent “Jet Zero Strategy” endorses 70% expansion by 2050. Expansion plans have already been launched or greenlighted at airports around the country — though with strong opposition from community and climate campaigners. A key way the industry sells its antisocial agenda is job creation. Even before the wider...

On 31 October the government announced it would scrap plans to close every rail ticket office in England. This is a significant victory for the rail unions, passengers, and disabled and accessibility campaigners. Despite the government and the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) arguing that modernisation and reform of the railway meant complete closure, a popular and large-scale campaign with over 750,000 responding to the consultation has defeated the plan. Transport Focus and London Travelwatch reported they were against the plan, and the government said that the alternative plans drawn up by...

Aslef has called further strikes on Train Operating Companies (TOCs) on 30 September, and 4 October with a further overtime ban on 29 September and again on 2-6 October. As yet RMT has not announced any new strikes. While hitting the first and last days of the Tory party conference will generate some headlines, with no real movement from the government or the RDG this cannot be a strategy to win. The rail unions, off the back of a successful public facing campaign about ticket office closures, should use that momentum to escalate the dispute. Off the Rails has previously said, “that sporadic...

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch told an LBC journalist that he would be prepared to conduct live, televised negotiations with the government, saying, “Let’s get it in the open [...] The RMT and the trade unions always turn up for any debate. I’ve debated with government ministers in the past on the media. I’m very happy to do those negotiations in public if that’s what they want to do.” Negotiating with the government and the employers in an open, public way would put our bosses and their political masters on the spot in the full view of the workers and the service users. We also share Lynch...

The rail union RMT and the fire service union FBU have submitted motions to the upcoming TUC Congress