ASLEF: New programme of rolling strikes

Train drivers who are members of ASLEF, the train drivers’ trade union, will take part in another programme of rolling one-day strikes, coupled with a six-day overtime ban, as the union increases the pressure on 16 intransigent train companies (including cross border services) – and the tone-deaf Tory government that stands behind them – to get train drivers, who have now not had a pay rise for five years, since April 2019, the salary increase they deserve. 

Members will walk out at Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and CrossCountry on Friday 5 April; at Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern, and TransPennine Trains on Saturday 6 April; and at c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line on Monday 8 April.

Members will also refuse to work their rest days from Thursday 4 to Saturday 6 April and from Monday 8 to Tuesday 9 April.

ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan said:

‘Last month, when we announced renewed mandates for industrial action, because, under the Tories’ draconian anti-union laws, we have to ballot our members every six months, we called on the train companies, and the government, to come to the table for meaningful talks to negotiate a new pay deal for train drivers who have not had an increase in salary since 2019. 

‘Our members voted overwhelmingly – yet again – for strike action. Those votes show – yet again – a clear rejection by train drivers of the ridiculous offer put to us in April last year by the Rail Delivery Group, which knew that offer would be rejected because a land grab for all the terms & conditions we have negotiated over the years would never be accepted by our members.

Since then train drivers have voted, time and again, to take action in pursuit of a pay rise. That’s why Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members. Drivers wouldn’t vote for industrial action, again and again and again, if they thought that was a good offer. They don’t. That offer was dead in the water in April last year – and Mr Harper knows that.

‘We asked Mr Harper, or his deputy, the Rail Minister Huw Merriman, to come and meet us. We asked the RDG and the TOCs to come and talk to us. We said, let’s sit around the table and negotiate. Because you say you don’t want any more industrial action, and we don’t want to disrupt the rail network, but the Tories and the TOCs have given us no choice.

‘We haven’t heard from Mr Harper, Mr Merriman, the RDG, or the TOCs since those new mandates were announced four weeks ago. In fact, Mr Harper hasn’t deigned to talk to us since December 2022; Mr Merriman hasn’t talked to us since January 2023; and the RDG has not seen fit to join us in the room since April last year.

"We have given the government every opportunity to come to the table but it is now clear they do not want to resolve this dispute. They are happy for it to go on and on. Because we are not going to give up. Many members have now not had a single penny increase in pay for half a decade, during which time inflation has soared and, with it, the cost of living. We didn’t ask for an increase during the pandemic, when we worked through lockdown, as key workers, risking our lives, to move goods around the country and enable NHS and other workers to get to work." Ends

Notes

We have called 14 one-day strikes during this 20-month dispute. Our first ballots went out in June 2022 and 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 December to Saturday 9 December. And a second rolling programme at different TOCs from Tuesday 30 January to Monday 5 February.

We have also withdrawn 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; and from Monday 29 January to Tuesday 6 February.