Afternoon summary
A quick recap.
A deal between train companies and rail unions is “achievable”, Mick Lynch, the head of the RMT union, has said today, as transport strikes causes disruption on the railways.
Lynch told Sky News that he was optimistic that a breakthrough could be achieved, as RMT members began a 48-hour strike.
He said:
“Resolutions to disputes are about compromises. We understand what the companies want and they understand what what we need.
“So we need some compromise on some of the conditions they’re putting on the offer and we’ll need an improvement in the pay offer.
“That is achievable, in my view.”
Lynch also explained that there are “no new proposals on the table as we speak,” following yesterday’s talks convened by rail minister Huw Merriman.
But he insisted that the dispute could be resolved:
If we get a set of documentation and a pay proposal that our members want to support, it will resolve the dispute and we can take all the action away.
I hope we can do that as quickly as possible.
Mick Lynch tells @AnnaJonesSky he is "always optimistic" for a deal as members of the RMT union begin a 48-hour walkout.
— Sky News (@SkyNews) December 16, 2022
Strikes latest: https://t.co/6GZb5mlllY
📺 Sky 501, Virgin 602, Freeview 233 and YouTube pic.twitter.com/TUNN1bQXkc
Just 20% of normal services were expected to run today, and tomorrow, with services operating between 7.30am and 6.30pm. Rail operators have warned passengers that the final trains many routes will leave much earlier than normal.
Motorists also faced more congestion in major cities today, according to data provider TomTom.
Some road traffic officers and control room operators at National Highways are holding the first of 12 days of industrial action today, in a dispute over pay and conditions. Today’s action involves staff in the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humber.
Ministers have been urged to “do the responsible thing by the country”, and resume pay negotiations with nurses unions, or see further industrial action in the health service.
But Rishi Sunak refused to bow to pressure from health leaders and some senior Conservatives to negotiate pay with nurses to prevent further strikes.
Speaking to the BBC during a visit to Belfast, the Prime Minister said:
“The Health Secretary has always been clear, the door is always open, that’s always been the case, but we want to be fair, reasonable and constructive, that’s why we accepted the recommendations of an independent pay body about what fair pay would be.”
But private sector companies continue to agree pay deals in excess of those on offer to key workers in the public sector.
Rolls-Royce, the luxury car company, has agreed a deal worth up to 17.6% next year for staff at its plant in Goodwood, West Sussex – said to be the largest single pay deal in the history of the factory.
Our Politics Liveblog has more coverage of the strikes today:
Unite: Government has five days to stop NHS strike spreading
The general secretary of the Unite union, Sharon Graham, has urged the government to convene NHS pay talks or see the strikes spread.
Graham warns that Rishi Sunak’s administration has five days to “do the responsible thing by the country”, and resume pay negotiations.
“It must not waste this weekend. Ministers need to give themselves a shake and get into serious pay talks or see this strike spread next week.
“Anyone with a passing knowledge of the NHS can see that this government has brought it to its knees. A decade of pay cuts and a chronic staffing shortage is crushing our NHS and putting patients’ lives at risk. Our NHS members feel that they are fighting to save the very NHS itself.
“Unless the government shapes up, this strike will deepen next week and the blame for this will lie firmly at ministers’ door.”
Unite’s members across three English ambulance trusts are set to walk out on 21 December over the government’s refusal to shift on its four per cent pay offer.
With RPI inflation rate hitting 14.0% in November 2022, this is a real terms pay cut of 10%, Unite points out.
But as we covered earlier, Sunak insisted today that the NHS pay offer is “appropriate and fair”, as he resisted pressure from health leaders and some Conservative MPs.
