Shadow Equalization Secretary Lisa Nandi is the first Labor to break the ranks and has publicly said she supports rail workers’ strikes in the coming weeks if ministers fail to address their concerns.
Railway workers belonging to the Union of Railway, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) will organize departures on 21, 23 and 25 June, and the consequences are also likely to disrupt many services on non-strike days.
Network Rail prepares contingency plans to enable the operation of some basic services. The strikes, which will include most of its signalman, as well as the on-board and station staff of 13 train companies, are expected to leave less than one in five services running, probably only between 7am and 7pm on major lines.
The government called the strikes “suicidal”, saying they could drive more passengers away in the long run.
Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain, Nandi said: “We want to avoid strikes and we are on the side of the public on this issue.
“We are also on the side of the railway workers, and I spoke to some railway workers on Monday just before I boarded the train to get off in London.
“They are dealing with the same pressure as everyone else – the price of food, the price of rising inflation, rising taxes and they are really struggling to make ends meet.
“They are the people we went out to and applauded during the pandemic because they supported our services and saw how their pay in real terms has been attacked over and over again over the last decade.
A spokesman for Labor leader Keir Starmer said earlier that he supported the general right of workers to resign, but said rail strikes should not continue.
Commentators noted that other members of the Labor front were apparently silent on the issue.
RMT said it would be open to “meaningful proposals” that would ensure no mandatory redundancies and targeted pay.
In the municipalities, Boris Johnson described the strikes as “reckless and reckless”.
A spokesman for the prime minister also said the strikes would deter people from using the railways when the number of passengers had already fallen to pre-pandemic levels.
“This is a self-destructive approach that will cause lasting damage not only to the railways but also to the railway workers,” they said.
The planned industrial action – after a vote of 40,000 Network Rail members and 13 companies operating trains last month – is set to begin on Tuesday, June 21 and continue on alternate days until Saturday.
Mandatory redundancies among railway workers are not yet threatened by either Network Rail or train operators, but as passenger numbers remain well below pre-Covid levels, companies are looking for up to £ 2bn in annual savings.
Many railway workers were frozen during the pandemic and have not yet been offered a pay rise, with inflation at its highest in decades.
Some 10,000 RMT members working for the London Underground will also go on strike on June 21, in a parallel dispute over jobs and pensions, shutting down the network. The Unite union announced on Tuesday that about 1,000 Transport for London members, including some subway workers, would arrange a 24-hour departure the same day, amplifying the unrest.
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