London, United Kingdom (UK)- The current strike by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) has so far affected about half of all rail lines.
About 4 500 services will run today compared with the 20 000 that would normally be expected and the timetable will start later and finish earlier than usual, running from 7.30 am to 6.30 pm, as around 40 000 members of the union are embarking on the strike.
London Underground workers are also on strike today. Transport for London has warned that most of its services are severely disrupted or not running, including the Tube, London Overground, the Elizabeth line and London trams.
Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps, said the government will have to change the law to ensure that the impact of militant union action is less damaging in future.
“For future strikes, we are going to ensure that the law is firmly on the passengers’ side, on the consumers’ side because we have got quite militant unions who we are having to work with calling strikes on an unnecessary basis,” said Shapps.
In addition, Shapps claimed that by taking strike action, the union was hurting precisely the people they claim to be protecting.
“White-collar workers, who can simply stay at home, use their computers, log in by Zoom or Teams, will carry on as before. The people that are hurting our people who physically need to turn out for work may be on lower pay, perhaps the cleaners in hospitals and the rest, and it’s very damaging of these unions, I absolutely deplore what they are doing today,” added Shapps.
RMT is asking for a seven percent pay rise lower than the current rate of inflation but higher than the offer of two percent, topped up with a possible further one percent linked to efficiency savings, that they say employers are offering.
Furthermore, RMT is accusing the government of stoking the confrontation by withdrawing billions in public grants for the railways and tying the hands of publicly-owned track operator Network Rail and the privately-owned train operating companies.
“Our message to the travelling public is that we are very sorry for the disruption that’s been caused. We don’t want to do that. We want to get a settlement to this dispute,” said RMT’s general secretary, Mick Lynch.
