Train strikes: millions across Britain face rail disruption as union action begins – live

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The secretary of state for transport, Grant Shapps said “passengers are being taken for a ride” by these “extreme hard left unions.”

Speaking with Radio 4’s Today, Shapps said there was a deal of 8% over two years, adding things were “going well” in the room, but was rejected before getting out to members.

Shapps said there hasn’t been a single day in three years where there hasn’t either been a strike or the threat of strike action with a mandate for it. Shapps said it demonstrates “we have the balance in the wrong place.”

When asked why he won’t negotiate directly with Mick Lynch, Shapps said:

This is just a game by the unions, they play it in every single industrial action…It’s simply because the only people who can settle these disputes are the employers with the unions.”

When asked if he was going down the road of legislation to make it more difficult to strike, Shapps responded “yes, and we’ve already started to do that.” Two changes have been made to the law already, said Shapps, such as the ability to bring in agency staff from other areas of the railway.

Shadow transport minister Sam Tarry joined striking workers on the picket line at Euston station, despite Keir Starmer’s orders to stay away, PA reports.

Tarry told ITV’s Good Morning Britain:

If we don’t make a stand today, people’s lives could be lost. Some of the lowest-paid workers are on strike today in the rail industry, safety critical workers, workers who make sure our railways get people to work and do so safely.

“It can’t be accepted anymore, that people just have to accept that inflation is out of control. The Government’s doing nothing on the cost-of-living crisis.”

He added that if Starmer was in government right now, the dispute wouldn’t be happening.

“I have absolutely 100% confidence that any Labour Party MP would be in support of striking workers who have given up a day’s pay, a week’s pay or even longer,” added Tarry.

When asked by BBC Breakfast if Keir Starmer should be there, Tarry said:

I think any Labour MP or Labour member, the half million of us across the country, will have absolute solidarity with striking doctors. Whether they be doctors, whether they be teachers, whether they’re people in the postal sector, because the thing people in this country are fed up with is 10 years of austerity followed by out of control inflation.

The RMT’s union leader said there’s no deal that was “ever acceptable to us”.

When asked by the BBC’s flagship morning news programme, Radio 4’s Today, if there was a deal done that he’s countered, the RMT union leader Mick Lynch said “no, that’s just propaganda plain and simple”. Lynch said they put the deal to our members in mass meetings of their representatives across the country.

Lynch said the proposals they have at the moment are unacceptable, and said the decision is not in the hands of a secret body, but in the hands of “the ordinary men and women who make up our union” out striking today.

“It’s quite difficult being a trade union in this country, it feels quite oppressive,” added Lynch. “This is not about power, it’s about jobs, conditions, pay and pensions.”

When asked if they’re getting support they ought to from the Labour party, Lynch said Keir Starmer needs to get in tune with where working class people are “because they’re being ripped off in this society at the minute.”

Lynch called on Starmer to come up with a bill of rights and a set of employment laws that “bring balance to our society, and rebalance our economy.”

Speaking with the BBC’s flagship morning news programme, Radio 4’s Today, Network Rail’s chief executive said he believed RMT negotiators were being overruled by those at the top of the union, and the deal should be put to the membership.

Andrew Haines said:

We think we were making good progress, and this has happened twice now, when the negotiators go back to talk to the RMT executive, we suddenly get a shift in tone and we end up with more strikes.

Good morning. The railways will again grind to a halt on Wednesday as workers strike over pay, job security and working conditions.

The strikes involve more than 40,000 workers at Network Rail, 14 train companies, and members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT).

Transport for London services will be affected by the disruption as it uses sections of track that comes under Network Rail’s jurisdiction. There will also be a stoppage by members of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), who work for the Avanti West Coast firm.

“Network Rail have not made any improvement on their previous pay offer and the train companies have not offered us anything new,” said the RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch. “The government need to stop their interference in this dispute so the rail employers can come to a negotiated settlement with us.”

Today’s strike came after union leaders rejected a “paltry” offer of a 4% pay rise for the remainder of 2022 from Network Rail, and a possible 4% next year if workers accepted changes in working conditions.

After the strike announcement, Network Rail accused the union of “walking away” from talks and said the action could have been avoided. “It’s now abundantly clear that their political campaign is taking precedence over representing their members’ interests,” said Tim Shoveller, Network Rail’s lead negotiator.

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