Rail unions have accused the government of “actively preventing” the resolution of a dispute which will see millions of passengers’ journeys disrupted from Tuesday in the most significant strikes to hit the network since the 1980s.
The RMT union pulled the plug on last-ditch talks with employers on Monday, blaming ministers for preventing Network Rail and the train operating companies from negotiating freely on pay, jobs and conditions.
But Grant Shapps’ Department for Transport dismissed the claim as “absolutely not true”, insisting that a £2bn shortfall in resources for the national network which the RMT attributed to government cuts was in fact the result of reduced passenger numbers following Covid.
Just 20 per cent of normal services are expected to run across the country on the strike days of Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday this week, with trains running primarily on main lines and for only 11 hours a day. Massive disruption is also expected on the days in between.
Nightmare journeys are expected not only for commuters trying to get to work, but also music fans heading for the Glastonbury festival and school pupils taking GCSEs.
And the walkouts by members of the RMT and Unite looked likely to kick off a “summer of discontent”, with unions representing workers ranging from teachers to barristers to nurses also threatening industrial action.
The first cancelled services came on Monday evening, as the sleeper service from London to Fort William was called off.
Unions are thought to be seeking pay rises of around 7 per cent, while employers’ offers are understood to be in the range of 2-3 per cent at a time when inflation is expected to reach 11 per cent in the coming months.
The RMT said an offer received from train operators on Monday was “unacceptable” and there was no further offer from Network Rail following one which was rejected last Friday.
General secretary Mick Lynch said: “The RMT national executive committee has now found both sets of proposals to be unacceptable and it is now confirmed that the strike action scheduled this week will go ahead.
“It is clear that the Tory government, after slashing £4bn of funding from National Rail and Transport for London, has now actively prevented a settlement to this dispute.
“The rail companies have now proposed pay rates that are massively under the relevant rates of inflation, coming on top of the pay freezes of the past few years.
“At the behest of the government, companies are also seeking to implement thousands of job cuts and have failed to give any guarantee against compulsory redundancies.”
There was anger over plans announced by business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to repeal laws which prevent employers from hiring agency workers to fill gaps left by striking workers.
The TUC warned that the move would breach international law, while representatives of employment agencies said they want the ban to stay, to save them from being pressured to send temporary staff into “hostile and potentially dangerous situations”.
A source close to Mr Kwarteng acknowledged the change would make little difference to the rail dispute, as it would prove impossible to recruit agency workers to skilled and safety-critical roles such as train driver and signalman, but said it will help employers deal with further threatened strikes later in the summer.
Mr Shapps told the Commons that ministers were working with the government’s civil contingencies secretariat to keep crucial supply chains open during the industrial action.
But he warned: “There will be massive disruption and we are advising people not to travel unless absolutely necessary.”
He repeated the promise from the Tories’ 2019 manifesto to introduce minimum service requirements for key services during strikes, but was unable to offer a timetable for legislation.
