1 year ago
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RMT members working for the 14 train companies in the national rail dispute will walk out on Friday June 2.
The union found the Rail Delivery Groups’ previous offer and associated conditions unacceptable, and despite contact between the parties since the strike on 13 May, no new proposals have been formulated for the RMT to consider.
The strike on June 2 will see 20,000 railway workers in catering, train managers and station staff all take action, affecting train services throughout the country.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: ‘The government is once again not allowing the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) to make an improved offer that we can consider.
‘Therefore, we have to pursue our industrial campaign to win a negotiated settlement on jobs, pay and conditions.
‘Ministers cannot just wish this dispute away.
‘They underestimate the strength of feeling our members who have just given us a new 6-month strike mandate, continue to support the campaign and the action and are determined to see this through until we get an acceptable resolution.
‘The government now needs to unlock the RDG and allow them to make an offer that can be put to a referendum of our members.’
RMT members are to stage a fresh strike on 2 June in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and working conditions.
There will be three rail strikes within four days with Aslef train drivers walking out on 31 May and 3 June, the day of the FA Cup final.
The RMT said no new proposals had been put forward by the train companies since the union’s last strike action on 13 May.
Industry negotiators were ‘blindsided’ when the RMT turned down their latest offer in April. There was a war of words over whether the RDG had gone back on its proposals – something it strongly denied.
On Thursday, the train companies’ group said it had continued to stand by its ‘fair’ proposal, and said the RMT leadership had chosen to ‘prolong this dispute without ever giving their members a chance to have a say on their own offer’.
However, RMT members have backed strike action potentially into the Autumn.
The 14 train companies affected by the RMT’s ongoing strike action are: Chiltern Railways, Cross Country Trains, Greater Anglia, LNER, East Midlands Railway, c2c, Great Western Railway, Northern Trains, South Eastern, South Western Railway, TransPennine Express, Avanti West Coast, West Midlands Trains and GTR (including Gatwick Express).
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