Train drivers who are members of ASLEF, the train drivers’ trade union will walk out in another series of one-day strikes, coupled with a six-day overtime ban, at the 16 passenger operators with whom the union is still in dispute.
ASLEF says the dispute is to get train drivers, who have not had an increase in salary for five years, since their last pay deals expired in 2019, the pay rise. In response, the Rail Delivery Group has described it as “wholly unnecessary strike action” and that it “continues to seek a fair agreement with the ASLEF leadership”.
ASLEF has said that after members in February voted overwhelmingly to take industrial action, it has asked train operating companies to come to the table and talk, and that they have refused.
“It is now a year since we sat in a room with the train companies – and a year since we rejected the risible offer they made and which they admitted, privately, was designed to be rejected,” said Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary.
In a release, ASLEF said: “We first balloted for industrial action in June 2022, after three years without a pay rise. It took eight one-day strikes to persuade the TOCs to come to the table and talk. Our negotiating team – GS Mick Whelan, AGS Simon Weller, and EC president Dave Calfe – met the RDG, a lobby group that acts for some of the employers, under the framework of the Rail Industry Recovery Group, on eight occasions – the last being on Wednesday 26 April last year. That was followed by the TOCs’ ‘land grab’ for all our terms & conditions on Thursday 27 April – which was immediately rejected.
“Since then train drivers have voted, again and again, to take action to get a pay rise,’ says Mick. ‘That’s why Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members. Drivers would not vote to strike if they thought an offer was acceptable. They don’t. And that offer – now a year old – is dead in the water.”
Members will walk out at c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line on Tuesday 7 May; at Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways; CrossCountry; East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway; and West Midlands Trains on Wednesday 8 May; and at LNER, Northern Trains, and TransPennine Trains on Thursday 9 May.
Members will also refuse to work non-contractual overtime from Monday 6 to Saturday 11 May.
Mick added: “Our pay deals at these companies ran out in 2019. Train drivers at these TOCs have not had an increase in salary for five years. That is completely wrong. The employers – and the government – think we are going to give up and run away. They’re wrong. In the words of Tom Petty, we won’t back down…”
In response, a spokesperson for Rail Delivery Group said: “This wholly unnecessary strike action called by the ASLEF leadership will sadly disrupt customers and businesses once again, while further damaging the railway at a time when taxpayers are continuing to contribute an extra £54 million a week just to keep services running.
“We continue to seek a fair agreement with the ASLEF leadership which both rewards our people, gives our customers more reliable services and makes sure the railway isn’t taking more than its fair share from taxpayers.”