Negotiations to prevent a second national railway strike collapsed yesterday as the two sides exchanged insults in a bitter war of words as millions of passengers faced a new day of misery.
In increasingly tense negotiations, the head of RMT met with Transport Secretary Grant Schaps to “disrupt the negotiations” in the dispute over pay, working conditions and proposed plans for “modernization” to reduce costs after the pandemic.
Schaps said the RMT allegation was a “complete lie”, while Network Rail claimed the union had withdrawn from the talks.
The rail industry has asked passengers to travel only if necessary on Thursday, when less than one in five trains in the UK is expected to run, as 40,000 RMT members working for Network Rail and 13 companies operating trains , strike. Train services will be sporadic and limited to main lines and urban areas between 7.30 and 18.30.
Aslef drivers will also join the strike on Thursday in the Greater Anglia network.
RMT Secretary General Mick Lynch blamed the transport secretary for the failure of the talks: “Grant Shaps failed these talks by not allowing Network Rail to withdraw its letter, threatening to cut 2,900 of our members.
“Until the government releases the shackles of Network Rail and the companies operating the trains, it will not be possible to reach a negotiated agreement.
“We will continue with our industrial campaign until we reach an agreement that provides job security and increases the salaries of our members, which is dealing with the escalating cost of living crisis.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shaps said: “This is a complete lie from RMT and its Secretary General. I have absolutely nothing to do with the issuance of a letter from Network Rail, the employer, to RMT – or any request for his withdrawal. “
In a letter to RMT management on Monday, Network Rail announced that it would begin a formal process allowing 1,800 redundancies from July 1, including mandatory redundancies if necessary. He said he could not delay further plans to reform his maintenance regimes.
Schaps added: “RMT continues to deviate from the fact that the only people responsible for the mass unrest this week are them. I would like to call on Mick Lynch and his members to stop wasting time making false allegations in the media and instead return to the negotiating table so that an agreement can be reached.
A Rail Rail spokesman said: “We are disappointed that RMT has again chosen to withdraw from the negotiations without agreeing on a deal. We remain available for calls – day or night – and will do our best to avoid further disruption to our passengers.
A spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group, representing train operators, said: “We call on RMT management to continue to speak so that we can secure a prosperous long-term future for the railway and its workforce.
The union rejected proposals to increase wages by up to 3% for rail and train operators and said it wanted a cost-of-living arrangement more closely linked to the RPI’s inflation measure, which reached 11.7% on Wednesday.
Railway staff at Merseyrail in the TSSA union voted to accept a 7.1% pay rise on Wednesday, and RMT is thought to be looking for a similar offer across the country.
Although the government has refused to join the talks, saying it is a matter for employers, the industry is currently funded by the finance ministry. Downing Street said Wednesday that it would be “reckless” to raise public sector wages in line with inflation.
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A spokesman for the prime minister said: “It is important to emphasize that this does not mean that we do not want to reward public sector workers with salary increases, we are doing it, we just need to make sure that we are not doing anything that would could … on the impact that is fueled by this global inflationary spiral that has the potential to be seen. “
The first day of Tuesday’s strike, which also coincided with a strike on the London Underground by another 10,000 RMT employees, saw relatively few passengers trying to travel on services that continue to operate, but crowded buses and congested roads around the capital . Elsewhere, congestion looked only slightly worse, with many people now able to work from home.
Services were also suspended on Wednesday morning, between the first two of three planned strike days this week, with a later start in many areas and about 60% of the normal schedule scheduled for the day.
However, Great Western Railway said it had managed to service more Glastonbury specials to accommodate people traveling to the festival than in 2019, with nine departures from London Paddington to Castle Kerry on Wednesday and five more planned. during tomorrow’s strike.
Meanwhile, bus workers at the Stagecoach in Merseyside have voted to strike from the end of next week. The departures will join the ongoing strikes in Yorkshire of drivers and workers at the Arriva landfill, which have suspended many services in the county for more than two weeks. More Arriva employees in the North West of England have voted to strike for pay.
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