11/23/22, 8:39 PM RMT announces more rail strikes dis­rupt­ing travel over Christ­mas

RMT announces more rail strikes dis­rupt­ing travel

over Christ­mas

The Guardian · 23 Nov 2022 · 12 · Gwyn Topham Trans­port cor­res­pond­ent

Rail pas­sen­gers will face fur­ther dis­rup­tion across Bri­tain at Christ­mas after
the RMT union announced a series of 48-hour strikes in Decem­ber and Janu­-
ary.

Thou­sands of mem­bers of the RMT work­ing for Net­work Rail and 14 train
oper­at­ing com­pan­ies will strike on 13-14 and 16-17 Decem­ber, caus­ing dis­rup­-
tion over six con­sec­ut­ive days. There will be a fur­ther two strikes on 3-4 and 6-
7 Janu­ary.
The RMT also announced an over­time ban from 18 Decem­ber until 2 Janu­ary.
Net­work Rail and train oper­at­ors were set to meet to dis­cuss the impact of the
ban, which would mean crew did not work on rest days over the fest­ive period,
when some ser­vices will already be impacted by engin­eer­ing works.
The strike includes sig­nalling staff, which is likely to mean a minor­ity of ser­-
vices will run on main lines while smal­ler lines will have no trains at all. Pre­vi­-
ous strikes have left about 20% of sched­uled trains run­ning between 7am and
7pm, with dis­rup­tion con­tinu­ing into the fol­low­ing morn­ings.
The RMT gen­eral sec­ret­ary, Mick Lynch, said the strikes “will show how
import­ant our mem­bers are to the run­ning of this coun­try”. “We want a good
deal on job secur­ity, pay and con­di­tions … It is impossible to find a nego­ti­ated
set­tle­ment when the dead hand of gov­ern­ment is presid­ing over these talks,”
he added.
Lynch said he had been told by the train oper­at­ors’ lead nego­ti­at­ors that they
had been blocked from offer­ing a deal by the Depart­ment for Trans­port. The
RMT boss was due to meet the trans­port sec­ret­ary, Mark Harper, on Thursday.
Lynch said there was still time for the gov­ern­ment to act to head off action.
A sep­ar­ate strike by train drivers in the Aslef union will also halt many ser­vices
this Sat­urday.

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