Train strikes to continue as workers at five operators including Northern and East Midlands vote in favour of action

Train strikes are set to continue in the UK after drivers at five operators voted to continue action for the next six months.

Trade union Aslef said that workers at Chiltern, c2c, Northern, East Midlands and TransPennine have voted in favour of the proposal, with more than 89% voting in favour at each of the operators. The vote gives the workers at each operator a mandate to hold a strike at some point in the next six months.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef said that the overwhelming results, on a 70% turnout, showed "a clear rejection by train drivers of the ridiculous offer put to us in April last year". He added: "The Rail Delivery Group (RDG) knew the offer would be rejected because we had told them that a land grab for all the terms and conditions we have negotiated over the years would be unacceptable.

"Since then our members have voted, time and again, for strikes. That’s why Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members. Drivers obviously wouldn’t vote for industrial action, again and again and again, if they thought that was a good offer. They don’t. That offer was dead in the water in April last year – and I think Mr Harper knows that.”

Mr Whelan said that Harper "hasn’t seen fit to talk to us since December 2022", while Rail Minister Huw Merriman has also not sat down with the union since January 2023. The general secretary added that RDG has also not sat down since April 2023.

Mr Whelan said: “Today we are saying, clearly, to Mr Harper, Mr Merriman, the RDG and the TOCs (train operators): come and talk to us. Let’s sit around the table and negotiate. You don’t want any more strikes, and we do not want to be forced to take any more industrial action, although we have the renewed mandates to do just that.

“We want to find a resolution to this dispute, for members who have not had a pay rise since our last deals ran out in 2019, and the only way to resolve this dispute is for the employers, and the government that stands behind them, to come and talk to us."