Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has called on the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union to return to the negotiations table as the first day of rail strikes gets underway.
It's estimated that 80% of train services will not be running over the three days of strikes, making it the largest rail strike in over 30 years and causing chaos for commuters across Britain. Speaking to Sky News, Mr Shapps said the strikes are a "stunt by the unions who could settle this today".
More than 40,000 staff are expected to take part. It's thought union negotiators are rejecting a 2% pay increase offer. The union also claims Network Rail wants to cut up to 2,500 jobs as part of a £2bn reduction in spending, workers who maintain tracks, signals and overhead lines affected. Ticket sales have fallen 25% since the pandemic and revenue falling. Taxpayer subsidy has risen to £16bn to keep services running.
Read more: Everything you need to know about how the rail strikes affect Wales
Mr Shapps said unions had been "resisting" reforms for decades, such as treating Sundays like "any other working day". And added that the median salary is £44,000 while the average salary for a train diver is £59,000. He compared that with the average £31,000 for a nurse.
"The Government has to make that overall choice of balancing pay across the public sector. Fortunately railway workers have been well paid.
"It's time to get this strike settled and I do call on the unions to come back to the negotiation table and fix this thing."
Looking ahead at possible future strikes, the Transport Secretary added that primary and secondary legislation would be used to protect the public from such disruption again. He said: "We've always hoped not to have to change the law because we've been talking to the unions for a long time over a package of reforms." However, Government would "ensure" the law is on the side of the passenger through transferable skills or agency workers and minimum service levels.
"I don't think it's acceptable that people who've waited for two years to get a hospital appointment today may not be able to get to it," Mr Shapps added. "The kids who are doing their GCSEs and A-Levels this week, 17 public exams, they won't be able to get to in some cases is not acceptable to disrupt businesses that are just getting back on their feet and so we are going to take steps to make sure that this type of thing is less damaging in the future for people."
General secretary of the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, Mick Lynch spoke on BBC Brakfast this morning from the picket line. He explained: "A good deal looks like a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies and last night when we went over to negotiate with Network Rail, instead of making a fresh offer, they issued us a formal notice of redundancies.
"At the moment, for our members, that's 2,900 people losing their jobs and they've given us a statutory letter about that. So we can't get past first base that they won't offer us job security. When we've done that [secured job security], we can move on to the working practices and we can talk about pay as well. The train and rail companies has actually offered to reduce pay in this industry and extend working hours."
