Rail workers to strike across Britain on 27 July, union announces

theguardian.com:

The railways will grind to a halt again on 27 July as staff stage another national strike in an ongoing dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

Members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union at train companies and Network Rail will walk out for 24 hours on Wednesday 27 July, with two other rail unions also considering industrial action.

Union leaders made the announcement after rejecting a new offer from Network Rail which they described as “paltry”. The state-owned company, which runs Great Britain’s rail infrastructure and most of its big stations, on Tuesday offered a 4% pay rise for the whole of 2022, followed by a possible 4% next year if workers accepted changes in working conditions.

However, the RMT said these represented “attacks on their terms and conditions”. The union said it had yet to receive a pay offer or guarantees over job losses from the train operating companies.

Members of the RMT staged three days of strikes in late June that brought large parts of the British network to a halt. The new planned midweek strike coincides with a day when passenger numbers are generally higher for commuter rail traffic since the rise of working from home during the pandemic. It also collides with the start of school holidays and the summer getaway.

The dispute comes with relations between unions and the government at a low point. The transport secretary Grant Shapps and Boris Johnson, who remains prime minister during the Conservative party contest to replace him, have repeatedly criticised unions and workers for strikes.

The Conservative government is also pushing ahead with controversial plans to allow companies to replace employees on strike with agency workers. Unions have criticised the move as a “scab charter”,