UK rail strikes return to bump up against FA Cup, Eurovision

(Unions representing UK train drivers and staff rejected a pay offer from rail operators, setting strike dates that could make it harder for fans to reach the Eurovision Song competition and FA Cup football final. 

The RMT union turned down the latest offer from the Rail Delivery Group, which represents the train companies involved in the dispute. The Aslef group representing drivers announced its rejection of the proposed 4% raise earlier Thursday. 

Four more days of labor action are planned for May and June — three staged by Aslef and one by the RMT, potentially complicating plans for Eurovision in Liverpool and the FA Cup in London.

“The RDG has reneged on their original proposals and torpedoed these negotiations,” RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said in a statement. “No doubt their decision is due to pressure exerted on them by the Tory government.”

Strikes against the railway system, which kicked off a wave of walkouts across healthcare, education, and the civil service, are now entering their twelfth month. Workers are angry at pay raises that fall short of inflation.

Separately, school leaders’ union NAHT announced Friday it would ballot for strikes and warned of coordinated walkouts with teachers. The general secretaries of all four education unions are due to appear together later in a show of support.

Aslef General Secretary Mick Whelan appeared before a committee in Parliament on Wednesday alongside Lynch. They said the government has attempted to pressure train drivers into working to uphold minimum service requirements, despite their disputes over pay and work conditions.

The pay offer was “fair and reasonable,” Max Blain, a spokesman for Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, told reporters.

“This is disappointing news for our customers and staff, said a spokesman for the Rail Delivery Group. “More strike action is totally unnecessary and will only heap more pressure on an industry already facing an acute financial crisis.”

Nursing Strikes

In another development, a UK court told nurses that their plan for more walkouts must end a day early. The Royal College of Nursing had called for strikes from April 30 through May 2, but a judge ruled the union’s six-month mandate for labor action will have expired before the last of those days. 

Pat Cullen, the RCN’s general secretary, said the union planned to go ahead with the first two days of strikes after balloting its members, saying outside of the Royal Courts of Justice that the National Health Service had been “run into the ground” during the pandemic. 

“The government could not stand by and let plainly unlawful strike action go ahead,” Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said in a statement. He asked the union to call off the strikes altogether.

The British Medical Association, which represents general practitioners, said doctors voted overwhelmingly to ballot members for potential strikes unless contract terms are changed, adding to ongoing labor disputes among NHS workers.