Labour’s Wes Streeting would join the biggest rail strike for decades if he worked on trains - as the threat of even more walkouts looms.
Strikes by the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will cripple services in the week of June 20 over pay, conditions, 2,500 maintenance job cuts and ticket office closures.
Now the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) is also balloting workers for industrial action that could happen later in the summer.
Labour insisted on Wednesday: “We’ve been clear in the position that the strikes shouldn’t go ahead”. A spokesperson added: “Nobody wants to see industrial action that is disruptive.”
But the party is in a tricky position due to its historic solidarity with the trade unions - and shadow cabinet ministers have since shown support for the workers.
Shadow Levelling Up Secretary Lisa Nandy yesterday said she backed both striking workers and the public.
And last night Shadow Health Secretary Mr Streeting told the BBC ’s Question Time: “Put it this way.
“If I were a member of the RMT and my jobs were at risk like this, then I would be voting to go on strike and I’d be voting to defend my job’s terms and conditions.
“If I were a government minister right now, it’s not my job to be on the picket line, it’s not my job to be condemning unions, it’s my job to solve the problem, to get people round the table.”
Mr Streeting said “I’d prefer they weren’t going ahead” but said: “Why are they going on strike? To defend their pay, jobs, terms and conditions.
“That is what any of us would be doing for our own jobs, pay, terms and conditions in the current climate”.
He said the striking workers were losing pay while on the picket line, adding: “This idea that we pit worker against worker and say it’s transport workers against nurses, teachers or doctors - it’s nonsense.”
Both Mr Streeting and Ms Nandy have been rumoured as possible leadership candidates if Keir Starmer is fined over Beergate, something he’s said would trigger his resignation.
A Labour spokesperson today stood by the party’s comments from Wednesday.
RMT strikes will cripple services from June 21 to 26, London Underground will be affected by an RMT and Unite strike on June 21, while Aslef members on Hull Trains, Greater Anglia and the Croydon Tramlink will stage a series of walkouts between June 23 and July 14.
More railway workers are to be balloted for strikes in growing disputes over pay and jobs, increasing the threat of a summer of travel chaos, it was announced on Friday.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said its members on CrossCountry, East Midlands Trains and West Midlands Trains will vote in the coming weeks on whether to launch campaigns of industrial action over pay, conditions and job security.
The newly announced TSSA ballots, among 570 workers, open on June 16 and close on July 7.
The union warned a Yes vote could allow for strike action to take place ahead of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Lib Dem MP Layla Moran told the unions “please, please don’t do this” while Tory minister Chris Philp accused them of holding the country “to ransom”.
Boris Johnson yesterday stood by his plans to close swathes of ticket offices, saying: “The union barons will once again protest.
“But the winners will be railway staff, whose industry will be placed on a much sounder long-term footing, and the fare-paying travelling public.”
Downing Street warned it was “keeping all options on the table” at will at some point introduce new laws saying a minimum number of workers must still show up.
The PM’s spokesman claimed the walkouts “could do lasting damage to our railways at a time when they are already suffering post pandemic”, “driving away” passengers.
There is no suggestion minimum service guarantees will be introduced before the RMT walkout.
