UK transport strikes set to heighten summer of disruption as pay talks stall

UK public transport passengers face another wave of disruption this week, with three unions set to strike across train, tube and bus networks and few signs of progress in talks to end the disputes over pay.

The most significant action will come on Thursday and Saturday, when more than 50,000 members of the RMT and TSSA unions stage two 24-hour strikes at Network Rail, which operates the country’s rail infrastructure, and train operating companies in a row over pay, potential job losses and working practices.

Rail bosses have warned passengers that about a fifth of normal services will run and to travel only if “absolutely necessary”.

Meanwhile, swaths of the London Underground and Overground rail network will close for 24 hours on Friday when RMT members walk out for the fifth time this year in a separate dispute over pay and pensions with Transport for London, which runs the capital’s bus, train and tube network.

More than 1,600 London bus drivers are also expected to strike on Friday and Saturday in a dispute over pay between the Unite union and bus operator London United, a subsidiary of France’s RATP.

The strikes are the latest in a series of walkouts this summer, which collectively amount to the biggest industrial action on the UK’s public transport network in a generation.

Unions argue their members deserve substantial pay rises, with inflation hitting a 40-year high of 10.1 per cent in July and forecast by the Bank of England to stay high for most of 2023.

“Thousands of rail workers across the country are experiencing real terms pay cuts as inflation skyrockets . . . Like everyone else our members just want to be able to turn the heating on this winter,” said Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA.

But soaring inflation has come as the rail industry’s finances face intense pressure following a collapse in passenger numbers during the coronavirus pandemic.

Industry bosses and the government have said any major pay rises will have to be funded by sweeping changes to working practices, including more flexible shift patterns and making Sunday a regular part of the working week.

Steve Montgomery, chair of the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators and Network Rail, said passenger revenues remained 20 per cent below 2019 levels and that “we have to change and move with the times”.

Senior managers belonging to the TSSA this month accepted a one-year 4 per cent pay rise offer from Network Rail, which included sweeteners such as free staff travel.

Network Rail has also offered both the RMT and non-management staff at TSSA an 8 per cent pay rise over two years, subject to modernisation, which has been rejected by unions. Train operators have yet to make unions any formal offers on pay.

Mick Lynch, RMT general secretary, said his union could not back the changes being proposed by train companies and Network Rail, such as major cuts to maintenance budgets and “ransacking terms and conditions”.

“RMT will continue to negotiate in good faith but we cannot tolerate being bullied or hoodwinked into accepting a raw deal,” he added.

With Network Rail insisting that its offer is all it can afford, talks are at an impasse, according to industry and union executives. “There has been no real progress,” said one union executive.

The infrastructure manager is pressing ahead with consulting staff on major changes to working practices within its maintenance units, without the agreement of unions.

In a sign of the state of industrial relations across the rail industry, Avanti West Coast, which runs services between London and northern English and Scottish cities, was this month forced to slash its timetable after not enough drivers signed up to work extra shifts.

Alan Bogg, professor of labour law at Bristol university, said the government’s “hands off approach” had not worked and that it should set out a national strategy for pay bargaining, which could include bringing in a quasi-judicial public body to oversee negotiations.

“The only way forward is to have a negotiated settlement, and if the current process is not conducive to that, you need to think of other ways,” he said.

The government did not immediately respond to a request for comment.