Fresh UK-wide train strikes set for April as drivers seek pay rise
A fresh round of train strikes are set to be staged next month with drivers across 16 companies preparing to walk out as part of a long-running dispute over pay.
Aslef members at Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains and CrossCountry will strike on Friday, April 5 while drivers at Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern, and TransPennine Trains will do so on Saturday, April 6.
Union members at c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway main line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line will trike on Monday, April 8.
This will impact lines coming out of major UK transport hubs, including London’s Euston and King’s Cross, Manchester, Leeds and Birmingham.
It will also mean the Thameslink, which runs through London and the City, will be out of action, impacting commuters.
Aslef added that its members will also refuse to work their rest days from Thursday, April 4, to Saturday, April 6, and from Monday, April 8, to Tuesday, April 9.
The announcement comes after Aslef also confirmed new strike dates for the London Underground in April and May.
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said: “Last month, when we announced renewed mandates for industrial action, because, under the Tories’ draconian anti-union laws, we have to ballot our members every six months, we called on the train companies, and the government, to come to the table for meaningful talks to negotiate a new pay deal for train drivers who have not had an increase in salary since 2019.
“Our members voted overwhelmingly – yet again – for strike action. Those votes show – yet again – a clear rejection by train drivers of the ridiculous offer put to us in April last year by the Rail Delivery Group which knew that offer would be rejected because a land grab for all the terms & conditions we have negotiated over the years would never be accepted by our members.
“Since then train drivers have voted, time and again, to take action in pursuit of a pay rise. That’s why Mark Harper, the transport secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members.
Drivers wouldn’t vote for industrial action, again and again and again, if they thought that was a good offer. They don’t. That offer was dead in the water in April last year – and Mr Harper knows that.
Mick Whelan
“We asked Mr Harper, or his deputy, the rail minister Huw Merriman, to come and meet us. We asked the RDG and the TOCs to come and talk to us.
“We said, ‘Let’s sit around the table and negotiate’. Because you say you don’t want any more industrial action, and we don’t want to disrupt the rail network, but the Tories and the TOCs have given us no choice.
“We haven’t heard from Mr Harper, Mr Merriman, the RDG, or the TOCs since those new mandates were announced four weeks ago.
“In fact, Mr Harper hasn’t deigned to talk to us since December 2022; Mr Merriman hasn’t talked to us since January 2023; and the RDG has not seen fit to join us in the room since April last year.
“We have given the government every opportunity to come to the table but it is now clear they do not want to resolve this dispute. They are happy for it go on and on. Because we are not going to give up.
“Many members have now not had a single penny increase in pay for half a decade, during which time inflation has soared and, with it, the cost of living.
“We didn’t ask for an increase during the pandemic, when we worked through lockdown, as key workers, risking our lives, to move goods around the country and enable NHS and other workers to get to work.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “ASLEF is the only rail union continuing to strike, targeting passengers and preventing their own members from voting on the pay offer that remains on the table.
“Having resolved disputes with all other rail unions, the Transport Secretary and Rail Minister have ensured that a pay offer is on the table – taking train drivers’ average salaries from £60,000 up to £65,000.”