STRIKE!

4 RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2022 :: RMTnews RMT will take coordinated strike action this month across the rail and tube networks against low pay and cuts to jobs and services. Three days of action were announced at Network Rail after the company attempted to impose drastic changes in working practices on their staff. Members on the train operating companies in the dispute will take action for two days. In separate disputes on London Underground and Overground networks (Arriva Rail London), RMT members will take strike action on November 10.   Following intense negotiations there had been an agreement where Network Rail would commit to an improved offer on pay and working towards a negotiated settlement.  However, in a dramatic U-turn, Network Rail bosses reneged on their promises of an improved pay offer and sought to impose job cuts, more unsocial hours and detrimental changes to rosters.   In a crass attempt to cut the union out of national negotiations, Network Rail wrote directly to staff undermining delicate talks and have tried to rehash a previous deal that RMT had categorically rejected.   RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that the union was still negotiating to avoid redundancies and cuts to maintenance work before tackling pay and the dishonesty of Network Rail bosses had reached a new low.   “On the one hand they were telling our negotiators that they were prepared to do a deal while planning to torpedo negotiations by imposing unacceptable changes to our members terms and conditions.   “Our members are livid with these duplicitous tactics, and they will now respond in kind with sustained strike action,” he said. He said that the only offer the RMT had received from Network Rail was effectively an eight per cent rise over three years rather than two, with inflation currently nearly 13 per cent – and something the industry “knew was not going to fly”. Speaking to MPs on the Commons transport select committee last month, Mick Lynch also said that the train operators had not improved their offer in 18 months and had no incentive to increase pay to avoid strikes in a “corrupt system”. He pointed out that the train companies did not lose money during strikes, only the staff, as they were protected by the Department for Transport contracts. STRIKE! Co-ordinated RMT action on Network Rail, train operating companies, London Underground and Overground