Another set of rail strikes is set to take place across the UK at the beginning of April, with workers at 16 different rail companies walking out.
Members of ASLEF will hold a rolling programme of one-day walkouts between April 5 and 8, coupled with a six-day ban on overtime.
This is part of a long-running dispute over pay and conditions, with the union saying train drivers have now not had a pay rise for five years, since April 2019.
It added that it wanted to increase the pressure on the “intransigent” train companies and the “tone-deaf” government following a series of strikes stretching back 20 months.
When will rail strikes take place in April 2024?
The rolling programme of strikes taking place at the beginning of April will be as follows:
- Friday, April 5: Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and CrossCountry
- Saturday, April 6: Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern, and TransPennine
- Monday, April 8: c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line.
Members will also refuse to work their rest days from Thursday, April 4 to Saturday, April 6 and from Monday 8 to Tuesday, April 9.
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 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.
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“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. That offer was dead in the water in April last year and Mr Harper knows that."
The April 8 strike coincides with a strike by train drivers on London Underground in a separate dispute over terms and conditions.
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