Economists have warned that strikes on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday could cut 0.3 to 0.4 percent of June’s gross domestic product, leaving one in 20 people unable to go to work.
Other public sector unions are threatening to follow the railroad workers and take industrial action, with teachers preparing to vote for a strike if they do not receive a wage settlement close to inflation.
The National Education Union said that if it did not receive a pay proposal closer to inflation by Wednesday, it would inform Nadim Zahawi, secretary of education, that it planned to vote for 450,000 members.
NHS workers could also leave if the salary increase due to be announced this week is not in line with inflation – it is expected to reach 11% this year.
Christina Macanea, leader of Unison, the country’s largest union, which has NHS employees among its members, warned the government that it was faced with a choice – to make a “reasonable reward … or risk a potential dispute”.
The national executive director of RMT is expected to start planning the next round of railway strikes this weekend.
A union source said: “We have a six-month strike mandate. The National Executive Committee will decide what to do next. They will meet only after this week and then have to give employers two weeks’ notice. “
The RMT can go on strike with just two weeks’ notice by the end of November, six months after the results were returned in late May. Further industrial action will then require a new vote.
The two sides in the railway dispute remained polar on Sunday, with further talks set to take place on Monday. The Telegraph learned that Network Rail had initially proposed a two per cent pay rise and a request for job cuts, while RMT’s secretary general Mick Lynch revealed for the first time that he wanted a pay rise of at least seven per cent.
Asked if passengers should expect a “long battle”, Mr Lynch told the newspaper i: “It may be so, I hope not, but at the moment there seems to be little evidence that it will go any other way.”
Network Rail said the company is now deepening a “battle of attrition” that echoed the miners’ strike in the mid-1980s.
A Network Rail source said: “It is very unlikely that these strikes will be one-off. RMT will meet after the strikes and decide what’s next, and we assume there will be more disruption and more days of strikes. This then moves the dispute into a battle of attrition.
“We are considering paying extra money to RMT whistleblowers to end the strike. Nothing has been decided, but there have been discussions about it. “
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