Nationwide rail strike is back on: RMT confirms action to take place on June 4 and June 11
The nationwide rail strike, called off at the 11th hour last week, has been rescheduled for next week.
Transport union RMT confirmed that the first action would take place for 24 hours from 5pm on June 4 this afternoon. A second strike is being scheduled to run from just after midnight on June 9 until 5pm on June 11.
Union members are also being called on to work to rule between June 6 and June 12.
RMT took the decision after union bosses met with area council representatives today to discuss revised pay proposals put forward by Network Rail.
Although the new offer was enough for the unions to call off the last strike, RMT said the “clear view of the meeting was that the new offer was unacceptable”.
General secretary Mick Cash said: "The solidarity and determination of members in the dispute has been incredible and I urge you to keep this up and stand shoulder to shoulder with your colleagues on the days of action.
"It is abundantly clear from the views of your reps at the meeting that Network Rail’s offer simply isn’t good enough and we demand nothing less than a substantial improvement."
There is no word yet on whether sister union TSSA will also be urging its members to strike. but given that RMT has around 80,000 members compared with TSSA's 3,000,, it is clearly the bigger brother that commuters and rail bosses will be fretting over.
Network Rail said it would restart its contingency planning with the train operators, but warned that if a national rail strike went ahead "rail services will be severely affected".
Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive said: “Our people know that there are ways to improve the way work is done. I have always said that if we work together to realise these benefits there is the possibility to increase pay. We are therefore ready to get around the table with whoever the RMT consider can speak on behalf of their members.
"It is clearly unacceptable for the RMT to massively disrupt the travelling public with strike action when we are ready to continue talks.”