Around 20,000 Rail Maritime and Transport union members are set to walk out on August 26 and September 2 as part of their long-running dispute over pay and conditions, the union has announced.
The August strike could cause misery for commuters travelling to the Leeds and Reading Festivals, and comes just ahead of the Bank Holiday.
Members from 14 train companies will strike and it has been left with little choice to take action because there has been no improved or revised offer from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which represents rail companies.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The mood among our members remains solid and determined in our national dispute over pay job security and working conditions.
“We have had to call further strike action as we have received no improved or revised offer from the Rail Delivery Group. The reason for this is the Government has not allowed them a fresh mandate on which discussions could be held.
“Our members and our union will continue fighting until we can reach a negotiated and just settlement.”
The 14 train firms affected are:
- Avanti West Coast
- c2c
- Chiltern Railways
- Cross Country Trains
- East Midlands Railway
- Great Western Railway
- Greater Anglia
- LNER
- Northern Trains
- South Eastern
- South Western Railway
- Transpennine Express
- West Midlands Trains
- GTR (including Gatwick Express)
Train drivers represented by Aslef who work for 15 train operating companies are also embedded in a dispute with rail companies. Aslef workers are refusing to work overtime between Monday 7 August to Saturday 12 August.
The union said it had “no alternative but to take this action” as it continues to fight for better pay for its members amid the cost of living crisis.
A spokesperson for Aslef said: “The ban – which is the latest move in our long-running national pay dispute – will seriously disrupt services as none of the train companies employs enough drivers to deliver the services they have promised passengers, and the Government, they will run.
“That’s why they are dependent on rest day working, as it is called in the railway industry, which of course is voluntary, and, by agreement, and properly for the purposes of training, and which leaves them vulnerable to this sort of industrial action.”
A spokesperson for the RDG said it was reluctant to increase workers’ pay because how the railway is funded has changed. They said: “The franchise model no longer exists, and train operators are paid on a small performance-related fixed-fee basis.
“They make a profit margin, typically 0.5 per cent, just like all other Government suppliers. Even if that fee were removed in its entirety, it wouldn’t come close to funding the pay rise set out, which would cost almost double the profit margin for one year alone.
“Even before the pandemic, under franchising, operators retained just 2p of every pound raised through ticket sales.”