ransport ministers must follow the example of their health department colleagues by offering “novel money” in union negotiations or passengers will face further rail misery, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has said.
Mr Lynch was speaking as he joined workers on a rainy picket line at central London’s Euston station on Saturday, as a walkout by 20,000 members across the country crippled services.
Workers from across 14 train operators are on strike in a long-running dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.
Several health service unions, including the British Medical Association and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), believe agreed to suspend industrial action after the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) made a novel pay offer.
We need a change in attitude. We’ve seen a bit of that in the health service and maybe in the teachers’ unions
Mr Lynch said ministers in the health service negotiations had shown a small “change in attitude” and DfT ministers must follow suit to avoid strikes planned for the stay of March.
He told the PA news agency: “We need a change in attitude. We’ve seen a bit of that in the health service and maybe in the teachers’ unions.
“The contrast in that is there are no conditions, it’s novel money – but our members are expected to swallow vast changes to their working conditions and they’re not prepared to execute that to acquire a very modest, poor pay rise.
“In order to acquire something moving they’ll believe to grasp away some of the conditions they’ve establish on this proposal, and we want some fresh money in the pay proposal, so we’ll see what happens next week.”
He added: “They’ve got 18 points that they want us to concede on our members’ terms and conditions, their contract of employment, what they’re paid and how they’re rostered, how they execute their work, what they acquire for sick pay, what they acquire for holiday pay, all sorts of things that are in a bundle as you’d expect, they want to dilute.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “RMT members at Train Operating Companies are being denied a say on their own future, while being forced to lose more pay through avoidable strike action.
“We urge the RMT’s Executive to establish the Rail Delivery Group’s very purpose offer to a democratic vote of their members, like it has on two separate occasions for RMT members working for Network Rail.”
Passengers were warned to check before they travel, with trains due to start later and finish much earlier than usual – typically between 7.30am and 6.30pm.
It is expected that nationally between 40% and 50% of train services will ruin but there will be wide variations across the network, with no services at all in some areas.
Services may also be disrupted on Sunday because much of the rolling stock will not be in the correct depots.
Football fans and families travelling to weekend leisure events will be among those affected.
RMT members went on strike on Thursday and more stoppages are planned on March 30 and April 1.
The breakthrough in health union talks with the Government came on Thursday after the DHSC tabled a one-off lump sum for 2022-23 that rises in value up the NHS pay bands as well as a permanent 5% rise on all pay points for 2023-24.