SCOTRAIL services are set to be crippled as rail workers stage a fresh strike in a bitter dispute over pay, jobs and conditions, threatening new chaos at the height of the summer holidays.
Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) at train companies and Network Rail will walk out in a UK-wide stoppage for 24 hours on July 27.
Union leaders made the announcement after rejecting a new offer from Network Rail which they described as “paltry”.
The offer was for a 4% pay rise backdated to January, another 2% next year and a further 2% conditional on achieving “modernisation milestones”.
The stoppage is an extension of the three-day stoppage in which ScotRail when 50,000 staff walked out.
It left only five ScotRail routes remaining in service. All were in the central belt of Scotland and with the last train departing well before 6.30pm.
The strike also hit cross-border services. Only around 20% of services were running with services operating on the five routes between 7.30am and 6.30pm on each of the strike days.
It marks a continuation of an ongoing UK-wide dispute with Network Rail -which owns the UK's rail tracks, stations and signals – over plans to axe hundreds of critical maintenance jobs.
RMT said it was the biggest outbreak of industrial action in the industry in a generation.
ScotRail said it was assessing what the extension of the strike would mean in terms of services and that it will let customers know as soon as possible.
But the train operator said the level of disruption is likely to be similar to the previous strike action.
The strike will have a widespread affect on ScotRail services because those involved int he industrial dispute are safety-critical workers, including signallers employed by Network Rail and are crucial to keeping trains running.
It comes as an emergency timetable which has cut services by up to half due to staff shortages remains in place across the Scottish network in a separate ScotRail dispute over pay with the train drivers union Aslef. A pay offer has been agreed by train drivers, but the curtailed timetable remains in place.
The RMT said it has yet to receive a pay offer or guarantees over job losses from the train operating companies (TOCs).
The RMT said it will be consulting other unions that have delivered mandates for strike action in the coming days, amid talk of co-ordinated walkouts.
Members of the drivers’ union Aslef and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) at train companies have backed industrial action in recent days.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “The offer from Network Rail represents a real terms pay cut for our members and the paltry sum is conditional on RMT members agreeing to drastic changes in their working lives.
“We have made progress on compulsory redundancies, but Network Rail are still seeking to make our members poorer when we have won in some cases double what they are offering, with other rail operators.
“The train operating companies remain stubborn and are refusing to make any new offer which deals with job security and pay.
“Strike action is the only course open to us to make both the rail industry and Government understand that this dispute will continue for as long as it takes, until we get a negotiated settlement.
“The public who will be inconvenienced by our strike action need to understand that it is the Government’s shackling of Network Rail and the TOCs that means the rail network will be shut down for 24 hours.”
The union says Network Rail is planning to cut at least 2,500 safety critical maintenance jobs as part of a £2 billion reduction in spending, including hundreds north of the Border.
Meanwhile, workers have been subject to pay freezes and changes to their terms and conditions.
Network Rail union workers will strike from 2am on Wednesday July 27 for 24 hours. Other train operator workers will take action from midnight.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel