Thousands of London-based rail workers who went on strike yesterday (August 18) are continuing to strike today and tomorrow, with British media warning that it will have a knock-on effect on to Sunday morning’s services. The strike is over an ongoing dispute about wages and poor working conditions.
Only about 20% of rail services were running yesterday, with about half of all lines closed. Until tomorrow, trains will only operate between 07h30 and 18h30.
Today and tomorrow, workers on the London Underground are walking out, as well as some on London United bus routes.
Mick Lynch, RMT General Secretary, said his union's members were determined to protect their pensions, earn a decent pay rise, ensure job security and secure good working conditions.
"Network Rail has not made any improvement on its previous pay offer and the train operating companies have not offered us anything new," he said.
"Tube bosses are having secret negotiations with the Government about cutting costs by slashing jobs and undermining working conditions and pensions. Network Rail is also threatening to impose compulsory redundancies and unsafe cuts to maintenance work if we did not withdraw strike action.”
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps responded: "It's clear, from their co-ordinated approach, that the unions are hell-bent on causing as much misery as possible to the very same taxpayers who stumped up £600 (R12 000) per household to ensure not a single rail worker lost their job during the pandemic. Sadly, union chiefs have short memories and will be repaying this act of good faith by ruining millions of hard-working people's summer plans.
"Businesses too will suffer, with the capital's leisure and tourism sectors, which have been banking on that summer trade, set to lose millions – a particularly cruel blow given how hard many worked to stay afloat during successive summers of lockdown,” he added.
