Train strikes: more industrial action expected as Aslef announces rolling one-day strikes in December

Train drivers are heading back out on strike next month as union Aslef announced new rolling one-day strikes.

Workers at train companies across the country will take place in the industrial action as they fight for their first pay rise in five years. Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “We are determined to win this dispute and get a significant pay rise for train drivers who have not had an increase since 2019, while the cost of living, in that time, has soared. The Transport Secretary, who has gone missing in action during this dispute, says we should put the offer to our members.

“What the minister apparently fails to understand is that, since the Rail Delivery Group’s (RDG) risible offer in April, we have received overwhelming mandates, on enormous turnouts, for more industrial action. Our members have spoken and we know what they think. Every time they vote – and they have voted overwhelmingly – for strike action in pursuit of a proper pay rise it is a clear rejection of the offer that was made in April. The RDG’s offer – a land grab for all our terms and conditions – was made in the full knowledge that it couldn’t – and wouldn’t – be accepted.”

Workers at each train company will walkout on different days between December 2 and December 8. The schedule for strikes are:

• December 2 - EMR and LNER
• December 3 - Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Great Northern Thameslink, and WMT
• December 5 - C2C and Greater Anglia
• December 6 - Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, the SWR main line and depot, and Island Line
• December 7 - CrossCountry and GWR
• December 8 - Northern and TPT

There will also be an overtime ban in place from Friday 1 December to Saturday 2 December. Mr Whelan added that the union has been able to come to a deal with 14 transport companies including freight firms and Eurostar in the past 12 months, but have been unable to strike a deal with those taking part in the new action.

Responding to the new strike, Rishi Sunak's spokesman said: "It's another wholly unnecessary act which will only further harm the railways and drive the public away from their services. Network Rail have put an offer on the table which takes them to £65,000 a year."

Whelan added: “We have been unable to do a deal with the 16 train operating companies (TOCs) in England controlled by the government. This is a dispute in England made at Westminster by the Tory government. We gave the TOCs a way out of this dispute which they chose not to accept because the government interfered.

“We suggested a significant across-the-board increase for all drivers, at all the companies involved, to deal with the cost-of-living crisis. Other matters, we said, could then be dealt with company by company because terms and conditions are different at each company.

“Uncoupling the carriages, as it were, would have given the TOCs and the government a way out, and given us an opportunity to deal, at company council level, with any changes and productivity they want. Some TOCs have Sundays in the working week, some don’t. One size does not – cannot and will not – fit all. We will continue to take industrial action until the train companies – and/or the government – sits down and negotiates with us in good faith.”