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THOUSANDS OF RAILWAY workers in the UK are staging their second strike of the week today after talks failed to resolve a bitter row over pay, jobs and conditions.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at Network Rail and 13 train operators will take industrial action, crippling services across the UK.
Only around one in five trains will run and mainly on main lines during the day.
Ahead of the strike, the Government announced plans to change the law to enable businesses to supply skilled agency workers to plug staffing gaps during industrial action.
Ministers pointed out that under current trade union laws, employment businesses are restricted from supplying temporary agency workers to cover for strikers, saying it can have a “disproportionate impact”.
The legislation will repeal the “burdensome” legal restrictions, giving businesses impacted by strike action the freedom to tap into the services of employment businesses who can provide skilled, temporary agency staff at short notice, said the government.
Network Rail welcomed the move but Labour and unions condemned it as a “recipe for disaster.”
The RMT accused Transport Secretary Grant Shapps of “wrecking” negotiations.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “Grant Shapps has wrecked these negotiations by not allowing Network Rail to withdraw their letter threatening redundancy for 2,900 of our members.
“Until the Government unshackle Network Rail and the train operating companies, it is not going to be possible for a negotiated settlement to be agreed.
“We will continue with our industrial campaign until we get a negotiated settlement that delivers job security and a pay rise for our members that deals with the escalating cost-of-living crisis.”
Shapps hit back, saying the RMT claim was a “lie”.
Meanwhile, members of the drivers’ union Aslef on Greater Anglia will strike today in a separate dispute over pay.
The company, which is also affected by the RMT strike, advised passengers to travel only if it was necessary.
The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) announced that its members at Merseyrail had accepted a 7.1% pay offer.
General secretary Manuel Cortes said: “What this clearly shows is our union, and sister unions, are in no way a block on finding the solutions needed to avoid a summer of discontent on the railways.
“Rather, it is the Government who are intent on digging in their heels. Grant Shapps would be wise to start talking seriously to our union as we ballot for industrial action on our railways up and down the land.”
A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson: “With passenger numbers still at only 80% of pre-pandemic levels the industry remains committed to giving a fair deal on pay while taking no more than its fair share from taxpayers.
“We can only achieve that by making improvements – like offering better services on a Sunday – that reflect the changing needs of passengers so we can attract more back.
“We call on the RMT leadership to continue to talk so that we can secure a thriving long-term future for the railway and its workforce.
“Our advice to passengers remains the same, only travel by rail if absolutely necessary, check before you travel and make sure you know the time of your first and last trains.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “We are disappointed that the RMT have again chosen to walk away from negotiations without agreeing a deal. We remain available for talks – day or night – and will do everything we can to avoid further disruption for our passengers.
“As a result of this needless and premature strike, rail services will look much like they did on Tuesday – starting later in the morning and finishing much earlier in the evening (around 6.30pm).
“We are asking passengers to please check before you travel, be conscious of when your last available train is departing, and only travel by train if necessary.”
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Mr Norris will be remembered as one of our greats .
A gentleman and a scholar.
Is this not odd, to rifle through documents from another time and publish through a modern prism? This reads like a scoop or as sensationalist, next week perhaps an expose on how women were appallingly treated for witchcraft?
@Osprey: No.
@Jimmy Wallace: You could just have left it as persecuted, Jimmy.
Lots of others were persecuted too.
Christianity is an equal opportunites persecutor.
@Osprey: Is it not odd that someone would wish that others be kept ignorant of history in an obvious attempt to push their opinions on how other people live their lives?
@Osprey: It’s called history
Right wing party did right wing things.
@Chris O’Brien: Who fox a R Ses chris. Do you…
@Chris O’Brien: It might tell us a lot about about the operation of this state.
Both FF and FG were in power during those years, with Labour in the mix too.
And yet the state’s stance on this remained the same – to try to fight to maintain its laws on persecuting the homosexual communities.
How much is any “policy” down to the government of the day, or to the permanent government of the civil service, from which it get its advice and told what it can and cannot do?
@ItWasLikeThatWhenIGotHere: It was a FF Minister that got rid of this law, a FG government that facilitated marriage equality and repeal of the 8th amendment but don’t let mere facts get in the way of your politically motivated rant.
@Kilkenny Proud: it was an FG and FF governments that wouldn’t legalise the sale of condoms to everyone one which would have been a huge help to dealing with HIV and it was a FG government which brought in the 8th amendment. The FF minister brought in the legalisation of homosexuality because of over a decade of fighting it through the courts in Ireland the EU and then the international court and only then after losing it they legalised it
@Kilkenny Proud: And who brought in or maintained these oppressive laws in the first place, Kilkenny Proud?
The reason these laws were repealed was because they were in breach of European human rights legislation, not that FF or FG actually wanted them repealed.
Or did you not even read this article?
So AIDS was a case against settling down and getting married? Only in Ireland
Christian fundamentalists is all ffg were..never a mention during revisionism of our recent history the influence politicians had over the people..I’d imagine if SF were in powers at the time the media would be revisiting stories such as these to showcase how backwards the country was under Them and how ffg are so progressive
@Shane Doyle: right, SF before they jumped into the bandwagon in last 10 years they were marching with rainbow flegs in Belfast
@Jimmy Wallace: 800 years of cultural control will do that to a peasant mind. It’s why we’re world leaders in begrudgery today.
Name them
What does this man want to achieve by bringing this case? What benefit does anyone get other than the lawyers and their cash.
The state are sh*tes
@lastfewchocices: Which comes first, the chicken or the egg.
Left hand shakes the right hand.
Make of that as you will.
have your say