Rail strikes: commuters stay home on day two of action as talks resume
The second 24-hour national rail strike has emptied railway stations across Great Britain as commuters opted to work from home while ministers pushed ahead with controversial plans to allow agency staff to break strikes.
Talks resumed between the RMT union and rail industry bosses as 40,000 union members at Network Rail and across 13 train operating companies downed tools. No firm progress was reported, with a third strike due on Saturday, as the two separate sets of negotiations in London, for railway maintenance and train company staff, continued throughout the day.
Documents seen by the Guardian from the pay talks confirm that rail operators are intending to “repurpose” all ticket offices within 18 months, with a target of making customers buy every ticket online or via a machine. They also confirm that new entrants would be hired on inferior terms and conditions, including being forced to work on Sundays and work for longer to qualify for a pension, under proposals linked to a maximum 3% pay rise.
Speaking in Rwanda, Boris Johnson said the strikes were unnecessary. He added: “To have a great future for rail, for railway workers and their families, we have got to have some sensible reforms and that is things like reforming ticket offices.”
Steve Montgomery, who chairs the Rail Delivery Group, which represents train operators, said it could not be guaranteed that the changes would not mean compulsory redundancies.
He told the BBC: “We believe that once we work through with the reform, that we can hopefully accommodate everybody who wants to stay within the organisation. We just need to get through the processes and see how many people are left, and hopefully nobody requires to be made compulsory redundant.”
Meanwhile, unions
Read more on theguardian.com
