Rail strike misery spreads

Rail workers in northern England are to take strike action over a pay dispute, while union officials in the south east are threatening indefinite industrial action. Rail, Maritime and Transport Union (RMT) members working for Arriva Trains Northern voted overwhelmingly for industrial action on Tuesday. Two 48-strikes will be held on 24 and 25 January and 5 and 6 February. Inter-city routes across the Pennines, regional railways across the North and North East and local services on Merseyside could be affected. Meanwhile RMT officials rejected a new pay offer from rail bosses to try and end the industrial action on South West Trains (SWT) and are threatening indefinite action. RMT officials said a third 48-hour strike will be held on 24 and 25 January, affecting rail passengers in south-east England. SWT said it was "very disappointed" that the union had called another strike. According to the union, 457 train conductors voted in the Arriva Northern dispute. Of those 429 voted in favour of industrial action and 28 voted against. Acting general secretary Vernon Hence said a requested had been made by Arriva to meet to try and resolve the dispute which the RMT had agreed to. The second day of the latest 48-hour strikes on SWT has crippled services in the south of England, with only 10% of services running on the busy commuter line into London. The company offered the RMT a 7.6% pay increase to try to end the action, announcing the offer at a press conference on Tuesday. But the RMT furiously rebuffed it and expressed outrage that the company had made the offer through the press and not approached it directly. It said the management had been "arrogant and belligerent" in trying to impose a settlement.

Mr Hence said it was actually only worth 4.2%. He told BBC News 24: "I have never known such arrogance in all my years in the rail industry. "They have handled the situation badly and it is an insult to our members who have been attempting honestly and openly to negotiate an agreement. "The offer does not answer our claim. There is nothing about shorter working hours. It could mean escalation. We've never known this with any other company before." SWT management had hoped their unilateral pay rise would break the deadlock, despite the RMT's earlier rejection of the figure, which is less than they have demanded. A spokesman said: "We remain convinced that our pay award, which is several times the rate of inflation and the best in the industry, is more than fair. "We hope our staff will recognise this and accept we have acted in good faith to bring this damaging dispute to an end." RMT staff want the same pay deal as drivers on the busy commuter lines that run into London's Waterloo station. And they are also angry over disciplinary methods with the demotion of a union activist causing particular fury. Officials deny the strike has a personal element. The current strike, which will finish at 0000 GMT, caused chaos on Monday and Tuesday with many of SWT's estimated 150,000 commuters staying at home or taking to the roads. There could also be minor delays on Wednesday as the service gets back to normal, with some trains in the wrong locations to start journeys on time. Services have also been cut in a separate dispute in Scotland. About 25% of trains were cancelled, as drivers continued an unofficial overtime ban on ScotRail, completely separate from the RMT action.