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A series of highly disruptive rail strikes looks set to go ahead in the run-up to Christmas after the UK’s biggest rail trade union on Sunday rejected an offer of improved pay aimed at resolving a long-running dispute with train operators.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the union, which represents train operators, was rejecting the offer from the Rail Delivery Group, as it did not meet any of its criteria for long-term job security, decent pay rises and a settlement for safeguards. working conditions.
The employer group offered a 4 percent annual pay rise for both 2022 and 2023 in exchange for multiple changes to working practices.
The union said on Monday it would consider an offer from UK rail infrastructure owner Network Rail to settle a separate dispute over pay, conditions and job security. Network Rail has increased its pay offer for this year to 5 per cent, up from 4 per cent previously, while maintaining its offer of a 4 per cent increase for next year.
Train operators and Network Rail said on Friday that if Network Rail and RMT members from 14 train companies – the first of four planned 48-hour strikes starting on December 13 – would need to reach a settlement by the end of Monday. Averted After Monday, industrial planning has to proceed on the assumption that there will be a strike, even if any industrial action is cancelled, disruption will be inevitable.
Earlier on Sunday, Tory Party chairman Nadim Zahavi angered unions and political opponents by claiming that British workers going on strike early on Christmas were playing into Vladimir Putin’s hands.
Zahavi argued that the Russian leader hoped to create economic chaos by using energy supplies as a weapon in his invasion of Ukraine, forcing inflation across Europe and fueling divisions in society.
“In my view, it’s unfair for unions to really harm and disrupt people’s lives and livelihoods at Christmas,” Zahavi told the BBC. Sunday with Laura Kuensberg.
“They should rethink and reflect on this because that’s what Putin wants to see. Let’s not divide, let’s come together,” he said.

As well as action by railway staff, strikes are set to take place this month by nurses, postal workers and university lecturers in disputes over pay offers that have largely lagged behind consumer price inflation, which hit a 41-year high of 11.1 per cent in October. percent
Zahawi’s comments were described as “ridiculous and insulting” by Christine Jardine for the Liberal Democrats.
Pat Cullen, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said the use of Russia’s war in Ukraine as justification for real-terms pay cuts for nurses was “a new low for this government”.
“The public does not believe this kind of rhetoric and wants ministers to resolve our dispute,” she said.
Meanwhile, Zahavi said the army’s role is part of contingency planning under which troops can be prepared to take over the work of key personnel who have gone on strike in areas such as border control and ambulance service.
The RMT’s response to the Rail Delivery Group’s offer dashed hopes that had been rising after a meeting between Lynch and Hugh Merriman, the rail minister, on Friday, which Merriman described as a “constructive and open discussion”. The union then held further talks with the Rail Delivery Group and Network Rail, the owner of the UK’s rail infrastructure.
The prospect of a series of strikes bringing the country to a standstill is a serious political risk for Rishi Sunak’s government, with the Conservatives typically trailing Labor by 20 points in opinion polls.
Zahavi said the party was rebuilding itself under Sunak’s leadership but agreed that the Conservatives’ heavy defeat by Labor in last week’s Chester by-election – which the opposition held with 60 per cent of the vote – was too poor a result.
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