Aslef: members vote ‘yes’ to pay deal from the DfT

Train drivers who are members of ASLEF, the train drivers' union, which represents 96% of the train drivers in England, Scotland, and Wales, have voted overwhelmingly to accept the pay deal offered by the new Labour government within weeks of the party winning the general election.

It ends the national two-year pay dispute at 16 train companies, including cross border services to and from Scotland, during which drivers took 18 days of strike action [as well as refusing to work non-contractual overtime] as the Conservative UK government sat on its hands and refused to talk.

The result of the three-week ballot – which ran from Wednesday 28 August to Wednesday 18 September – was: Yes: 10,971 (96.6%). No: 389 (3.4%). Turnout: 11,365 (88.5%).

Mick Whelan, ASLEF's general secretary, said: 

‘It is with great pleasure that we can announce the end of the longest train drivers' strike in history. The strength and resilience and determination shown by train drivers to protect their hard-won and paid-for terms & conditions against the political piracy of an inept and destructive Tory government has prevailed.

‘It was not a fight we sought, or wanted. All we sought was – after five years without a pay rise, working for private companies who, throughout that period, declared millions of pounds in profits and dividends to shareholders – was a dent in the cost of living.

‘We are grateful that Louise Haigh, the Secretary of State for Transport, and the adults entered the room and sought an equitable way forward so that trains will perform and run in the interest of the passenger, of the taxpayer, and of those who work in and are dedicated to this industry.'

Mick Whelan added: ‘Those who have been lying about this pay offer, and conflating the deal offered to train drivers with decisions on the winter fuel allowance, should be ashamed. Although it seems to be the work of those who would not accurately report anything about train drivers over the past two years. 

‘Now we will get back to our day job of seeking a green, well-invested, vertically-integrated, and safe public railway.' ends

Notes:

This vote ends the longest dispute in recent history on Britain's railways during which 13,000 drivers took 18 days of strike action as well as refusing to work non-contractual overtime at 16 companies: Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, C2C, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Greater Anglia, Great Northern Thameslink, Great Western Railway, LNER, Northern, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway and Island Line, TransPennine Express, and West Midlands Trains.

The no-strings offer is for 5% for 2022 to 2023; 4.75% for 2023 to 2024; and 4.5% for 2024 to 2025. Which, compounded, works out at 15% and is backdated and pensionable and includes drivers who retired or left the industry during the dispute.

Labour, led by Keir Starmer, won a landslide victory in the election on Thursday 4 July. Louise Haigh was appointed Transport Secretary on Friday 5 July, Peter Hendy Rail Minister on Monday 8 July, and Mick met them at Great Minster House in Whitehall on Wednesday 10 July. Our negotiating team – Mick, assistant general secretary Simon Weller, and executive committee president Dave Calfe – had their first formal meeting with the DfT team on Tuesday 23 July and we received a pay offer on Wednesday 14 August.

‘It just shows what can be done when the grown-ups come into the room,' said Mick. ‘The TOCs and the RDG behaved in bad faith, and the Tory government – in the shape of Grant Shapps and Mark Harper – sat on their hands and refused to talk to us. But this Labour government – Louise and Keir and their cabinet colleagues – have worked with us to resolve this dispute.'

Mick added: ‘The offer is a good offer – a fair offer – and it is what we have always asked for, a clean offer, without a land grab for our terms & conditions that the companies, and previous government, tried to take in April last year. We achieved more in the first four weeks of a Labour government than we managed under a Tory government that set out to destroy us – first by refusing to meet us, then by insisting the companies could only offer us 2%, then by offering us 4% but with a land grab for all the t&cs we have spent 144 years negotiating with productivity and sweat.

We first balloted for industrial action in June 2022 and renewed our mandates [for strike action and for action short of a strike] every six months.

We called 14 national one-day strikes. Our members withdrew their labour on Saturday 30 July 2022; Saturday 13 August; Saturday 1 October; Wednesday 5 October; Saturday 26 November; Thursday 5 January 2023; Wednesday 1 February; Friday 3 February; Friday 12 May; Wednesday 31 May; Saturday 3 June; Friday 5 September; Saturday 30 September; and Wednesday 4 October.

We then held our first rolling programme of a week of staggered one-day strikes at different companies from Saturday 2 to Saturday 9 December. A second rolling programme at different TOCs from Tuesday 30 January to Monday 5 February. A third from Friday 5 to Monday 8 April. And a fourth from Tuesday 7 May to Thursday 9 May.

We also withdrew rest day working – non-contractual overtime – from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 May 2023; from Monday 3 to Saturday 8 July; from Monday 17 to Saturday 22 July; from Monday 31 July to Saturday 5 August; from Monday 7 to Saturday 12 August; on Friday 29 September; from Monday 2 to Friday 6 October; from Friday 1 to Saturday 9 December; from Monday 29 January to Tuesday 6 February 2024; from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 April and from Monday 8 to Tuesday 9 April; and from Monday 6 to Saturday 11 May.

While no one in Britain has to belong to a trade union, 96% of all the train drivers in England, Scotland, and Wales, where we organise, choose to belong to ASLEF. That's why we speak for – as well as represent – the train drivers of Great Britain.