‘Doesn’t seem fair or democratic’ that RMT has not put Government’s pay offer to train drivers, says minister
Huw Merriman said he thought it was not democratic for the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) to opt not to put the UK Government’s pay offer to its train worker members.
Speaking on BBC Breakfast, the Conservative rail minister said: “The evidence for whether it is or isn’t fair and reasonable is down to the members.
“If you look at what happened with the RMT, who are striking tomorrow, they put a similar offer to their members who work on Network Rail and that was accepted – 76 per cent of those who voted accepted it.
“That would seem to indicate that the workforce will judge it as fair and reasonable, will take it because they want to move on.
“Why is it the case that an RMT member that works on the tracks gets a pay rise and gets the chance to vote on a pay rise, but fellow members who work on a train don’t get that opportunity?
“It doesn’t seem fair or democratic to me.”
Aslef is further away from a resolution with Government than it was two years ago, says union boss
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan has laid out the reasons why his members are going on strike today.
He told Sky News: “We’ve had four years without a pay rise, like many other workers in many other sectors.
“We’ve had a rather disingenuous deal put to us at Christmas that wasn’t actually part of the offer containing our red lines.
“We’ve shown good faith in going back to the talks […] then we received an offer that contained all [our] red lines and was designed to fail.”
Asked if he feels any closer to a resolution to the dispute, he said: “I’m normally an optimist; I do believe there has to be a resolution […] but while the Government and the employers are behaving so deceitfully and dishonestly […] I get less and less faith in the process.
“So we’re now further away than we were two years ago.”
Aslef general secretary accuses Government of acting in ‘bad faith’
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan has accused the Government of acting in “bad faith” during negotiations with the union.
He told BBC Breakfast: “At some point someone’s going to realise these are Government-led strikes, the Government are interfering their free collective bargaining process and they want unrealistic targets.
“They sent out a deal before Christmas that we’d never seen, we’d never negotiated and tried to force it through by the back door in a total act of bad faith, and even then we came back from the table.
“We suspended all action in the hope of finding a way forward and then what happens? We sit down for three months in good faith, we agree a process that we’re going to undertake and then right at the end someone interferes, revokes it, and puts out a deal that would contain all the red lines we previously opposed in those talks, destining it to fail.
“I don’t think the Government and the companies want a solution.”
Rail passengers face major travel disruption for the next couple of days as train drivers go on strike in long-running disputes over pay.
Members of the drivers’ union Aslef are walking out today, while members of the RMT will strike on Saturday. The action impacts more than a dozen train operators, crippling services across the country, hitting commuters and those hoping to travel to Liverpool for the Eurovision Song Contest.