Rail workers announce more strike action as teachers consider fresh walkout

RMT members have announced a fresh strike in a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

RMT members working for 14 different train companies will take industrial action on June 2.

The National Education Union (NEU) has also separately announced teachers will hold fresh strikes in July if their long-running dispute over pay has not been resolved by mid-June.

The RMT union said an offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) was unacceptable, adding that no new proposals had been made since the last strike on May 13.

The strike on June 2 will see 20,000 railway workers in catering, train managers and station staff 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 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 six-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.”

In recent months, teachers across the UK have also taken industrial action in a dispute over pay.

On Thursday, the NEU said Education Secretary Gillian Keegan could avoid further industrial action if she addresses pay and other issues, including recruitment.

Following a meeting of the union’s national executive, joint general secretaries Dr Mary Bousted and Kevin Courtney said the minister now has the School Teachers’ Review Body’s report on pay.

They said: “She has the power to reject, accept or amend the STRB recommendations. She has the power to fully fund her decision.

“If she makes the right call, she can start to move our schools in a better direction.

“She can fund schools properly, start to address the decline in teacher pay and its consequences for the appalling state of teacher recruitment and retention.

“If she makes the right decisions, she could also avoid further strike action.

“The NEU executive will meet next on June 17.

“We hope that by then she will have discussed the STRB report and her reaction to it with teacher and headteacher unions, and discussed both workload and this year’s pay, which remains unsettled.

“If she hasn’t moved to settle the dispute, then that meeting will decide on further strike action in the week commencing July 3.”

The union is re-balloting its members to seek a new mandate to continue taking industrial action for six months.

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