Railway workers are to hold a series of 24-hour rail strikes that threaten to cause widespread disruption in the new year, in an escalation of their long-running dispute about guards.
Workers at six train operating companies – Southern, South Western Railway, Greater Anglia, Merseyrail, Arriva Rail North and the Isle of Wight’s Island Line – will walk out 8 January. Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union at at the same companies, except Southern, will stage two further walkouts on 10 and 12 January.
The union said it had tried to resolve the dispute, but said it continues to have safety concerns over plans to impose driver-only trains without guards.
The strikes will be a fresh blow to passengers just days after the imposition of the 3.6% increase in fares – the biggest annual rise in five years.
The RMT general secretary, Mick Cash, said: “Every single effort that RMT has made to reach negotiated settlements in these separate disputes with the different train operating companies over safe operation and safe staffing has been kicked back in our faces. We are left with no option but to confirm a further phase of industrial action in the new year.”
Cash said the disputes were about putting the safety of the travelling public “before the profits of the private train companies”.
“It is frankly ludicrous that we have been able to negotiate long-term arrangements in Scotland and Wales that protect the guards and passenger safety but we are being denied the same opportunities with rail companies in England,” he said.
“This suspension of normal industrial relations by the employers has to end if we are to make progress towards a solution that guarantees safe rail travel for all.
“RMT is in no doubt that it is the dead hand of the minority Tory government that is interfering in these disputes and their influence is a factor in preventing the union from reaching negotiated settlements.”
Cash added that with fares increasingon 2 January it was “outrageous” that the prime minister and the transport secretary, Chris Grayling, were “happy to stand aside and cheer on overseas rail companies that rip-off the British passenger with eye-watering fare increases to subsidise their domestic transport operations while throwing the guards off our trains”.
He said the government should lift its “blockade” on talks in the separate disputes to allow the union to negotiate “freely” with the companies.
RMT members on Virgin West Coast, CrossCountry, South Western Railway, Greater Anglia and London’s Docklands Light Railway are taking strike action in the coming weeks in a series of disputes over staffing, pay and working conditions.
Richard Allan, Arriva North’s deputy managing director, said: “Northern is committed to investing in new and updated trains, better stations and faster journeys for our customers.
“Northern is still prepared to guarantee jobs and pay for conductors for the rest of our franchise to 2025 if we can reach agreement on how our colleagues deliver better customer service using those fantastic new facilities.
“Additionally, last week the government wrote to RMT, guaranteeing employment for conductors beyond 2025 if RMT ends its dispute.
“We will be working hard to keep customers on the move during these next RMT strike days.”
Paul Plummer, the chief executive of the Rail Delivery Group, said: “No one wins from RMT strike action. The partnership railway understands the need to change and is working together with a long-term plan to do more for customers, communities, businesses and our people.
“These improvements are what the RMT strikes are about. Working together, we’ve got to find a way through this dispute so that we can get on with the business of delivering our long-term plan for the railway, playing our part to support Britain’s economy.”
