UK rail unions plan to strike again as pay disputes fester

Train drivers across the UK will strike again in September, the third walkout in as many months, as unions fight for steeper pay hikes amid surging inflation.

Drivers at 12 train operating companies will walk out on Sept. 15, the Aslef union said in a statement Wednesday. Earlier in the day, the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, which represents workers from nine train companies and Network Rail, said it would strike for 24 hours on Sept. 26.

The TSSA’s strike coincides with the Labour Party’s annual conference, which starts in Liverpool the previous day. The labor group’s boss, Manuel Cortes, urged Labour’s Members of Parliament to join picket lines, but the party’s leader, Keir Starmer, insists it is inappropriate for shadow ministers to stand beside striking workers.

“I want a Labour government, I want to be the Labour prime minister,” Starmer told the Jeremy Vine show on Channel 5. “You can’t sit around a Cabinet table resolving issues and then walk on to a picket line -- they are different jobs.”

Labour has typically aligned itself with trade unions since its founding more than a century ago.

Spiraling prices have triggered walkouts across the country, including on trains, buses and at ports crucial to supply chains. The UK is suffering from double-digit inflation, and unions argue that their members should not have to stomach real-terms pay cuts. They are also resisting reforms to the network after Covid-19 changed passenger habits.

“Withdrawing our labor, although a fundamental human right, is always a last resort for a trade union,” said Mick Whelan, Aslef’s general secretary. “But the train companies have forced our hand.”

However, a spokesperson for the Department of Transport said union bosses were “choosing self-defeating strike action over constructive talks.”