Mick Lynch admits Christmas train strikes will cause ‘real damage’ to ordinary people
Rail union boss Mick Lynch has admitted that strike action on the railways over the Christmas period will cause “real damage” to ordinary people.
Leaders of the Rail, Maritime and Transport workers union (RMT) announced on Monday that a fresh series of strikes will take place from Dec 24 through to Dec 27.
They are in addition to strikes that were already due to take place on Dec 13, 14, 16 and 17. More are scheduled for Jan 3, 4, 6 and 7.
When the union announced the new Dec 24-27 strike dates, it said they would coincide “with the wind down of passenger services” and would largely impact engineering works rather than on people travelling.
However, Mr Lynch, the RMT general secretary, acknowledged on Tuesday that people’s travel plans would be hampered over the Christmas period.
Told during an interview on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that rail strikes in December would do “real damage” to people, Mr Lynch said: “Yes, and that is unfortunate, but we have to respond to what the companies are doing and they are doing that very deliberately.”
Mr Lynch said the union does “regret the inconvenience” that the industrial action would cause, but he argued ultimately “this inconvenience is being caused by the Government”.
“They are seeking to ratchet up the dispute, they are escalating the dispute in some ways, by saying that we will impose these changes” he added.
“If we do not respond, then those changes will go through without a response from us and our members will have to suffer the consequences, including job losses and changes to their working lives that are unacceptable to them, and that includes more unsocial hours and more weekend working.”
Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, said the new strike dates were “incredibly disappointing” and accused the RMT of causing “harmful disruption” to passengers.
The latest announcement came after rail unions rejected an eight per cent pay offer from the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, that would have averted strikes next week.
A separate pay offer of nine per cent from Network Rail has been put by the RMT to its members, with a recommendation to reject it.
Meanwhile, the TSSA rail union called off strike action planned for this month and is putting an offer to members in Network Rail.
But it has rejected the Rail Delivery Group’s offer, meaning industrial action in train operators remains on the cards unless progress can be made.
Nick Gibb, the schools minister, accused the RMT of “holding the country to ransom”, while Baroness Vere, a transport minister, said the union’s announcement of more rail strikes this month was “terribly disappointing” and “deeply unhelpful”.
However, Angela Rayner, Labour’s deputy leader, said the railway network was “absolutely crumbling”, even without strike action, and accused the Government of presiding over a “complete shambles”.
