UK: Rail unions ring in the new year with more strikes

A fresh round of rail strikes kicked off on Tuesday bringing large parts of the UK to a standstill as people returned to work after the long New Year's weekend.

Network Rail, the body that coordinates the country's rail services, warned travelers and commuters of "significantly reduced" train services until at least Sunday.

"Due to industrial action, there will be significantly reduced train services across the railway until Sunday 8 January," Network Rail said.

"Trains will be busier and likely to start later and finish earlier, and there will be no services at all in some places."

The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) — which has around 40,000 members — is holding strikes on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. The Aslef union is striking on Thursday.

The unions are seeking a pay rise to keep up with soaring inflation but RMT boss Mick Lynch has accused the government of intervening and preventing a deal between the unions and rail companies.

Government and unions at loggerheads

Westminster has said it cannot afford to increase pay in line with inflation, arguing that this would end up in a spiraling inflation-pay rise trap.

But the government has also called on the unions to return to negotiations, wary of the effect of continued strikes on businesses that rely on commuters.

"The only way you get a deal sorted out is to get the trade unions and employers around the negotiating table and not on the picket line and that's what I want to see happen," Transport Minister Mark Harper said.

But Lynch has said the government seems happy for strikes to go ahead by blocking a potential deal by insisting that guards are removed from trains, making the driver the only member of staff present, something the unions said they will not accept.

"All the parties involved know what needs to be done to get a settlement, but the government is blocking that," Lynch told the BBC.

A new winter of discontent

Soaring prices and stagnant wages have seen an explosion in labor action in the UK, the likes of which have not been witnessed since the 1980s.

Inflation in the UK has hit a 41-year high of 11.1%.

An array of strikes already took place in December with nurses, airport baggage handlers, ambulance and bus drivers, border control officers and postal workers walking off the job to demand more pay.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said he would not agree to pay increases for public sector workers in line with inflation, offering only modest rises that in real terms would equate to pay cuts.

"The best way to help them and help everyone else in the country is for us to get a grip and reduce inflation as quickly as possible," Sunak told lawmakers on a watchdog panel at the end of last year.

ab/jcg (AFP, AP, Reuters)