{"id":21517,"date":"2024-03-21T17:36:44","date_gmt":"2024-03-21T07:36:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=21517"},"modified":"2024-03-21T17:36:44","modified_gmt":"2024-03-21T07:36:44","slug":"train-drivers-at-16-rail-companies-to-strike-in-april","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/?p=21517","title":{"rendered":"Train drivers at 16 rail companies to strike in April"},"content":{"rendered":"

Train drivers at 16 rail companies will stage a fresh wave of strikes in April as the long-running dispute over pay and conditions continues.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Members of Aslef will hold a rolling programme of one-day walkouts between April 5 and 8, alongside a six-day ban on overtime.<\/p>\n

Train drivers have now not had a pay rise for five years, since April 2019, said Aslef.<\/p>\n

The union said it wanted to increase the pressure on the \u201cintransigent\u201d train companies and the \u201ctone-deaf\u201d government following a series of strikes stretching back 20 months.<\/p>\n

Drivers will strike on Friday April 5 at Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and CrossCountry.<\/p>\n

On Saturday April 6 drivers at Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern, and TransPennine will strike.<\/p>\n

Monday April 8 will see train drivers strike at c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern\/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line.<\/p>\n

Members will also refuse to work their rest days from Thursday April 4 to Saturday 6 April and from Monday 8 to Tuesday 9 April.<\/p>\n

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: \u201cLast month, when we announced renewed mandates for industrial action, because under the Tories\u2019 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur members voted overwhelmingly \u2013 yet again \u2013 for strike action.<\/p>\n

\u201cThose votes show a clear rejection by train drivers of the ridiculous offer put to us in April last year by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG) which knew that offer would be rejected because a land grab for all the terms and conditions we have negotiated over the years would never be accepted by our members.<\/p>\n

\u201cSince then train drivers have voted, time and again, to take action in pursuit of a pay rise. That\u2019s why Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members.<\/p>\n

\u201cDrivers wouldn\u2019t vote for industrial action, again and again and again, if they thought that was a good offer. That offer was dead in the water in April last year and Mr Harper knows that.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe asked Mr Harper, or his deputy, the rail minister Huw Merriman, to come and meet us. We asked the Rail Delivery Group and the Train Operating Companies (TOCs) to come and talk to us.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe haven\u2019t heard from Mr Harper, Mr Merriman, the RDG, or the TOCs since those new mandates were announced four weeks ago.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, Mr Harper hasn\u2019t deigned to talk to us since December 2022. Mr Merriman hasn\u2019t talked to us since January 2023 and the RDG has not seen fit to join us in the room since April last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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 go on and on.\u201d<\/p>\n

The April 8 strike coincides with a strike by train drivers on London Underground in a separate dispute over terms and conditions.<\/p>\n

A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said: \u201cNobody wins when industrial action impacts people\u2019s lives and livelihoods, and we will work hard to minimise any disruption to our passengers.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to resolve this dispute, but the Aslef leadership need to recognise that hard-pressed taxpayers are continuing to contribute an extra \u00a354 million a week just to keep services running post-Covid.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe continue to seek an agreement with the Aslef leadership and remain open to talks to find a solution to this dispute.\u201d<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Train drivers at 16 rail companies will stage a fresh wave of strikes in April as the long-running dispute over pay and conditions continues. Members […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[153,387,85],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-british-railways","category-scotlands-railway","category-uk"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21517"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21517\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vibewire.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}