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Some 40,000 railway workers will go on strike for three days this week, on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Most of the country’s rail network will be disrupted, as will London Underground services.
The Railway, Maritime and Transport Union described the employer’s latest offer as “unacceptable” and stated that “the strike planned for this week will continue”. The trade unionists will go on strike on June 21, 23 and 25, and they do not rule out organizing others in the coming months if they do not reach an agreement on wages and conditions with the public manager of the Network Rail infrastructure and the private operators of the lines .
General Secretary Mick Lynch said rail companies had “proposed wage rates that are well below relevant inflation rates, and come on top of pay freezes in recent years”.
For his part, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the strike would cause “massive disruption”, with only 20% of services able to operate. According to him, the responsibility for the strike lies with the unions, which he said are resisting the changes so necessary to make the railways “fit for the post-Covid-19 world”.
“This strike is not about wages,” Shapps reacted to lawmakers. “It’s about old-fashioned unions opposing progress.”
The Labor Party criticizes the current Conservative government for undermining the negotiations by not providing more room for maneuver to the manager and the Executive refuses to get involved in the dispute on the grounds that “it would create even more confusion”.
“The dead hand of this Tory government is in this whole dispute,” said Lynch, the union boss. “I think there are going to be a lot of unions going on strike across the country because people can’t take it anymore,” he added. “We have people with full-time jobs who are having to receive state benefits and turn to food banks. It is a national disgrace,” Lynch emphasized.
Passenger numbers in the UK remain below pre-crisis levels, and rail companies, which have stayed afloat with government support during the pandemic, are now looking to cut costs and staff.
At the same time the train conductors, represented by the Aslef union, will hold their own strike this Thursday and on July 2 on the Greater Anglia line. Treasury Secretary Simon Clarke said workers should get “a sensible pay rise” but too large a raise would lead to other massive pay rises that would drive up inflation.
But the mobility situation seems to be getting worse, Heathrow airport announced that it was going to ask the airlines that fly from terminals 2 and 3 to reduce 10% of their flights, this because since Friday a huge accumulation of luggage at London airport.
With EFE and AP
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