Six more months of rail strike pain with walkouts to hit Christmas AGAIN as union votes to continue action

COMMUTERS can expect six more months of train strike pain with walkouts to hit Christmas AGAIN.

Unions have voted to continue planned and future strikes as disruptions are set to get in the way for much of the country well into next year.

Rail passengers are being warned to still expect delays or no service from December 2 until December 8 following a long-running dispute over wages.

Members of Aslef at 16 train operating companies will also refuse to work overtime from today until December 9.

It comes despite members of the RMT union agreeing to a pay offer after a lengthy battle.

The deal that was shook on included a backdated pay rise of five per cent for 2022-23 and job security guarantees.

The news brought relief to travellers yesterday after it meant no further industrial action would take place.

But it was short lived when drivers under the banner of the Aslef union announced that their strikes would continue.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union however did vote to cancel their walkout.

Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary said the strikes for his union members would go ahead in order to “express our disgust” after not receiving a pay rise for the last five years.

He said: “We are going on strike again not to inconvenience passengers, but to express our disgust at the intransigence of this Government, and the bad faith shown by the private companies which employ us.

“It is clear that the Tory Government does not want to resolve this dispute.

“We haven’t had a meeting with Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, since December 2022.

“We haven’t had a meeting with Huw Merriman, the rail minister, since January this year, and we haven’t heard from the employers since April.

“We are prepared to come to the table and negotiate but the train operating companies and the Tories that stand behind them are not.

“This is turning into a political, rather than an industrial, dispute. They simply can’t be bothered.

“They are happy to see this dispute rumble on, for passengers and businesses to suffer, and to drive Britain’s railways – once the envy of the world – into a managed decline.”

A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group said the upcoming disruption is “unnecessary and avoidable”.

He said: “This unnecessary and avoidable industrial action called by the Aslef leadership has been targeted to disrupt customers and businesses ahead of the vital festive period, where people will be attending events and catching up with friends and loved ones.

“It will also inflict further damage on an industry that is receiving up to an additional £175 million a month in taxpayer cash to keep services running, following the Covid downturn.

“The Aslef leadership are blocking a fair and affordable offer made by industry in the spring which would take average driver base salaries for a four-day week from £60,000 to nearly £65,000.

“We urge them to put it to its members, give Christmas back to our customers, and end this damaging industrial dispute.”