Train lines across the country as well as the London Underground are expected to be severely disrupted this Tuesday, June 21, but also Thursday and Saturday. Forty thousand members of Britain’s main rail sector union, Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT), will not work to lobby the government. He demanded the disappearance of 2,660 maintenance jobs within Network Rail, the public entity responsible for the rail network, its signaling and the public spaces of the stations, in order to reduce its annual payroll by 120 million euros. euros.
4,500 services versus 20,000
Network Rail has warned that 4,500 train services will be maintained on strike days compared to 20,000 on a normal day. The connections will also be reduced by half on Wednesday and Friday due to the absence the previous nights of employees in charge of track maintenance. “Only travel if absolutely necessary,” warned its executive director Andrew Haines. Unsurprisingly, Conservative Transport Minister Grant Shapps denounced “the huge disruption for families and businesses” and accused the Labor Party of encouraging the strikers by not denouncing their movement.
This strike has long been announced. Discussions between the government and the unions began last summer after the announcement of the 15% reduction in the budget of 12.2 billion euros planned for the works to improve the rail network between 2019 and 2024. The government had justified these cuts by the need to reduce expenditure following the payment during the Covid pandemic of 19.5 billion euros to private operators holding concessions to enable them to operate their lines.
No more telecommuting
The department believes these staff reductions are necessary because“in the future, the number of train services will be reduced”. Due to the strong development of telework, the sector plans to find only 80% of users before the health crisis. During the first quarter of 2022, 275 million trips were made, i.e. 62% of the total recorded during the same period in 2019.
Negotiations started in June 2021 were unsuccessful. The unions were all the less open as the government reportedly granted only a 2% pay rise to Network Rail employees despite the 9% inflation recorded in April. Proof of the anger of workers in the sector, the employees of 13 of the 14 operators, in addition to Network Rail, voted in favor of the strike during the consultations organized in April and May.
The setbacks of nationalization
This social movement is taking place while the government is working on a total restructuring of the railway sector. In 1993, the entire network was privatized and shared between around twenty operators of various sizes, responsible for national or local lines, for a total of 26 concessions. Network management has also been privatized. It was renationalised nine years later, under the name of Network Rail, following the multiplication of fatal accidents linked to the deterioration of the lines, caused by the lack of investment. The unions are currently denouncing a return to this same spiral of under-investment, which is dangerous for passenger safety.