Ryan FowlerTrain drivers, members of ASLEF, the train drivers’ union, which boasts a membership rate of 96% of all train drivers in Britain, are set to walk out in a new series of one-day strikes. These strikes are scheduled alongside a six-day overtime ban across 16 passenger operators, where pay disputes remain unresolved.
The action comes as drivers seek a deserved pay rise, having not seen an increase in salary since their last pay agreements expired in 2019—a period during which the cost of living has significantly risen.
Despite overwhelming member support for renewed industrial action in a February vote, train operating companies have not engaged in negotiations. “It is now a year since we sat in a room with the train companies—and a year since we rejected the risible offer they made and which they admitted, privately, was designed to be rejected,” said Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary.
ASLEF first balloted for industrial action in June 2022 after three years without a pay rise, leading to eight one-day strikes to bring the train operating companies (TOCs) to the negotiating table. “Since then train drivers have voted, again and again, to take action to get a pay rise,” Mick Whelan added. He criticized the Transport Secretary, Mark Harper, for his comments on the negotiations, stating, “That’s why Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members. Drivers would not vote to strike if they thought an offer was acceptable. They don’t. And that offer—now a year old—is dead in the water.”
The strikes will occur at various operators on staggered dates: c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line on Tuesday, 7 May; Avanti West Coast, Chiltern Railways, CrossCountry, East Midlands Railway, Great Western Railway, and West Midlands Trains on Wednesday, 8 May; and LNER, Northern Trains, and TransPennine Trains on Thursday, 9 May.
Additionally, members will refuse to work non-contractual overtime from Monday, 6 May to Saturday, 11 May.
“Our pay deals at these companies ran out in 2019,” said Mick. “Train drivers at these TOCs have not had an increase in salary for five years. That is completely wrong. The employers—and the government—think we are going to give up and run away. They’re wrong. In the words of Tom Petty, we won’t back down…”
