Only 20% of UK train services running as 45,000 rail workers go on strike – business live

Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), said he fears finding a solution will not be possible because of “political interference,” as rail workers stage another rail strike.

Speaking to ITV’s Good Morning Britain from Euston Station, he said the union had been working with Network Rail and the train operating companies but “the gap between us is still there”.

We’ve got to find a way to bridge that but I fear that because of the political interference that’s happening with the public transport and the Treasury, we’re not able to do that.

We’ve also got a dispute tomorrow with London Underground – which is more of the same that the funding from the railway has been cut and that means an attack on rail workers across the land and I think many workers are suffering from that at this moment.

They’re not getting a square deal but we’ll keep working with the companies to get a negotiated settlement and as soon as we can do that, will put it to our members and hopefully we can get the railway back providing service the that public needs.

We will work those problems through but what we need is the management to have the ability to negotiate and I think this has been has been partially caught up in the Tory leadership election or selection process that they’re going through and I think because those candidates have both both taken a turn to the hard right in this country, it’s very difficult to find the the ability to create a settlement.

Good morning, and welcome to our live, rolling coverage of business, economics and financial markets.

Many train platforms will be eerily quiet today on the first day of new rail strikes. Commuters and other travellers are facing further disruption over the next three days on rail, tube and bus services.

More than 45,000 rail workers go out on strike today, mainly from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) and Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), in long-running disputes over pay, jobs and conditions.

Both sides were talking about the latest strike action on BBC radio 4’s Today programme this morning.

Andrew Haines, chief executive of Network Rail, complained about

slow negotiations, painful negotiations moving over all the place, absolute lack of clarity in what it would take to call the strike off, shifting goalposts. They’re not good and we’re desperate to bring this to a resolution in a way that’s affordable for the country and which avoids the pain for my colleagues.

This is the biggest strikes that we’ve seen perhaps for 30 years on the railway and that’s because the employers, myself and the rail operators, supported by the government are saying the economic crisis which Covid has precipitated demands that we modernise.

Also on the radio, speaking from Euston station, Luke Chester, organising director at the TSSA in London, said the dispute was about pay, job security and working conditions.

TSSA members have not taken industrial action for a very long time in the majority of cases. It’s not something that we take lightly, it’s something that we take seriously.

What we need to resolve this dispute is a pay rise which reflects the cost of living increase that is affecting most people in this country very severely, we need job security …and we require guarantees from the employers that they are not going to rip up people’s contracts of employment, that they are not going to change conditions of working in the way we’ve seen for example at P&O.

He said the unions were “100%” willing to negotiate on working conditions and working practices, but had not been given the guarantees they were looking for.

What’s slightly disingenuous is that we have zero pay offer from the train operating companies, we have zero guarantees around conditions of service and we have zero guarantees around job security.

So while we’re talking to Network Rail and Mr Haines and his team are sat round the table with us, and we’re trying very very hard and he’s right it’s painful, we’re trying very very hard to make progress with them. Unfortunately we’ve got 15 train operators who are being told by the Department of Transport by Mr Shapps that they are unable and have no mandate to even sit around and make an offer.

He stressed that the unions were looking for a “package of measures” and that Merseyrail was able to make a 7.1% pay offer, which has been accepted by workers, because it is not controlled by the Department of Transport. Rail managers have also accepted a deal, a package of measures including a pay rise and guarantees around job security. Many were previously paid less than the people they managed, he said.

Clearly job security is paramount and many of our members haven’t received a pay rise in three years despite being key workers, despite working through the pandemic. Job security, pay is important and protection of condition of service.

Asian shares drifted lower, following in Wall Street’s footsteps, after the US Federal Reserve’s minutes of its July meeting pointed to a steady course of interest rate hikes ahead.

The minutes showed policymakers considered paring back the pace of future rate hikes in line with the slowdown in inflation, but saw “little evidence” yet that inflationary pressures were easing.

Japan’s Nikkei, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng and China’s blue-chip CSI 300 index all lost nearly 1%. Over here, the UK’s FTSE 100 index dipped 0.2% to 7,497 while Germany’s Dax opened 0.2% higher, France’s CAC was flat and Spain’s Ibex edged up 0.1%.

The Agenda

9am BST: Norway Norges Bank interest rate decision (forecast: 1.75%)

10am BST: Eurozone inflation for July (forecast: 8.9%)

1.30pm BST: US Initial jobless claims for week of 13 August (forecast: 265,000)

3pm BST: US Conference Board leading index for July, home sales for July