Scotrail staff are planning strike action throughout COP26, it has emerged.
It is expected that no Scotrail trains will operate, causing disruption across the whole of Scotland, including vital links between Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Strike action is set to take place from November 1 to 12, aligning with the major climate change conference in Glasgow.
Over 100 world leaders and 25,000 delegates are expected to descend on Glasgow, with Edinburgh sharing the hosting duties.
Transport Minister Graeme Dey has said that he is 'not optimistic' that the strikes can be stopped, after the suggested pay rise was rejected by the union.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the decision to go ahead with industrial action was made on Friday after the train company "failed to get serious" in talks with the union.
But this has led to Liberal Democrats calling for Dey to resign if the strikes go ahead.
Back in October 15, it was revealed that rail workers were offered a pay rise of 4.7 percent over two years. And union chiefs branded this as 'lousy'.
The Daily Record reports that ScotRail members of the RMT voted in favour of industrial action during the COP26 summit earlier this month.
The trade union said that the strike action was ‘forced on them’ amid a dispute over pay and conditions.
The RMT union is the final holdout in the action, which is set to disrupt the historic summit coming to Glasgow in less than a week, according to PA reporters.
Up to 30,000 people will descend on Scotland's largest city over a two-week period and the strikes would hinder their ability to commute to and from the conference hall.
Mr Dey said on Tuesday he was "not optimistic" of a resolution by the deadline, set for 5pm on Wednesday.
He told the BBC's Good Morning Scotland programme: "This is a situation that we have tried extremely hard to avoid.
"We find ourselves in a perplexing and deeply disappointing situation."
But union leaders described the offer as "pitiful", claiming it came with conditions that could cost jobs.
The Liberal Democrats have now called for Dey's resignation if the situation cannot be resolved, highlighting how much disruption it will cause.
Lib Dem transport spokeswoman Jill Reilly said: "We are talking about delegates from around the world being unable to attend the most important climate summit of all time.
"Hotels in Edinburgh and elsewhere are booked out for this conference but their guests are unsure if they will even be able to reach the venue.
"The travelling public have now had six months of reduced services on the railways, it's not like this has come out of the blue."
Ms Reilly went on to point to the resignation of former transport secretary Stewart Stevenson, after a failure to prepare for snow disrupted roads.
"A rail shutdown would be a failure of equal magnitude. If the trains don't run smoothly and on time for the duration of Cop26, then Graeme Dey should resign.
"The eyes of the world will soon be on Scotland. Ministers need to stop grandstanding and hammer out a deal that gets the trains running."
Mr Dey added: "RMT keep moving the goalpost.
"If there are strikes during Cop26 then we have to prepare for that. Not just to move delegates, but for the wider travelling public who will be disrupted by this.
"We have contingency plans ready and we have to pivot towards implementing those plans in detail, and the deadline tomorrow was simply set to allow everyone to know where we stand so that we can inform the delegates, the travelling public, what will be on offer in the way of services next week."
In response, RMT Scotland organiser Mick Hogg said the union would be available "morning, noon and night" to resolve the disputes, but added that the comments of the transport minister were "absolutely nonsense".
"The goalposts were never there to be moved in the first place - we have been stonewalled for the last 18 months," he said.
"No talks have ever taken place, albeit we've been in a dispute for the last eight months on a separate dispute over rest day working where no trains have been running on a Sunday.
"Then all of a sudden because of Cop26 there's a rush to get around the table in order to find a resolution to the current disputes."
Mr Hogg added: "We remain available morning, noon and night, anytime, anywhere, in order to get a settlement - that's our position."
He said the sticking point was that "efficiency savings", which he claimed would lead to job losses, were conditions of the most recent offer.
