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RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: june 2019 :: RMTnews
7
R
MT is winning battles across
the country in the fight to
smash the pay cap imposed on
rail workers by Tory Transport
Secretary Chris Grayling last
year.
In August 2018 Grayling
announced to a huge fanfare
that he was going to try and
impose a pay norm on rail
workers that would restrict pay
increases to the lesser Consumer
Prices Index (CPI) in a break
from the higher Retail Prices
Index (RPI) which includes
housing costs.
However last month RMT
confirmed a two-year pay deal
for the biggest single group of
rail staff, nearly 20,000
members on Network Rail,
which will match the RPI figure
for the next two years alongside
a continuation of job protection
measures.
This means that Network Rail
members have received over 35
per cent in pay increases since
2009 (see table).
The Network Rail workforce
joins staff at train operating
companies as well as cleaning
and catering workers across the
country that, through militant
and campaigning industrial
trade unionism, have also
smashed their way through the
government pay cap outlined by
Grayling.
RMT general secretary Mick
Cash thanked all Network Rail
reps for their assistance and
support for the negotiating team
throughout these discussions.
“This offer achieves real pay
and job security for members
and commits the company to
discussing and addressing a
number of important areas the
union has been campaigning to
be addressed for some time.
“However this is just the start
for the union in the industry as
a whole.
“In August last year Tory
Transport boss Chris Grayling
threw down the gauntlet to rail
workers across the country.
“His plan was to force our
members to take a hit on their
pay to bail out the failing train
companies while they were
laughing all the way to the
bank.
“RMT said at the time that
we would set out to smash
Grayling’s pay cap and that is
exactly what we have done
through the unity, determination
and guts of our members who
have refused to pay for the
government’s on-going rail
crisis.
“Our fight for decent pay and
working conditions right across
the transport sector goes on.
“We are proud of what we
have achieved in the teeth of a
full-frontal political assault but
recognise that there are still
groups of workers in
outsourced, casualised and
under-valued pockets of the
industry where the campaign for
pay and workplace justice needs
to be focussed,” he said.
SMASHING
GRAYLING’S PAY CAP
Network Rail workers win over 35 per cent in pay rises
since 2009 due to militant industrial trade unionism