A representative from the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) workers has explained the key reasons behind next week's strike action.
Daren Ireland is the North West's regional organiser for the RMT and represents 11,000 workers. More than 40,000 RMT union members from Network Rail and 13 train firms plan to walk out next week in what has been described as the "biggest rail strike in modern history".
The strike will take place on June 21, 22 and 25 - and Mr Ireland said frustrations have reached boiling point among the work force amid claims Network Rail plans to cut up to 2,500 jobs as part of a £2bn reduction in spending.
READ MORE: Entire Merseyrail network will shut down for three days next week
He said: "The majority of our membership has not had a pay rise since April 2019. During which time, there's been huge increases in the cost-of-living. Fuel, energy and household costs have gone up and our members are suffering.
"It's reasonable when you see millions of pounds going off to shareholders to ask why can't we see some of that in workers' pay packets. The rail has been open in the pandemic and now, the government in a short period of time since the relaxing of restrictions wants to try and push in a long-held dream which is to slash worker's terms and conditions in the industry to protect the interests of the private operators."
The 51-year-old lives in Toxteth and has held the elected position within the RMT since 2013. He warned the job losses and proposed changes to the conditions in worker's contracts would lead to major safety concerns for the railway.
He said: "We're increasingly letting profits becoming centre and when profits become the motive rather than safety then there'll be continual conflict. Recently [Network Rail] have engaged in a £150m contract with an HR organisation purely around contract.
"Clearly that is to casualise railway maintenance and effectively have poor conditions of employment and allow workers to be exploited. An escalation of lower trained contractors and casual employment would no doubt lead to poorer maintenance and ultimately we're on a downward spiral to a major incident."
The strike is set to cause disruption for Merseyrail trains as the entire network will shut down during the industrial action. Mr Ireland said its "unfortunate the public will be inconvenienced", but the strike action is a "necessary" last resort after repeated attempts of negotiating.
He said: "We don't want a dispute. We want a negotiated settlement. But we've turned up to meeting after meeting as a union and the train operating companies and Network Rail said 'we can't negotiate. We've got nothing to offer you unless you want to talk about productivity measures'. This is about selling your terms and conditions of employment. We are not going to do that.
Mr Ireland said 89% of the workers he represents voted for strike action and called on the government to allow the rail operators to reach a fair deal. He said: "The position from the government today is actually appalling. They talk about levelling-up but actually all they want to do is flatten and smash workers pay and terms and conditions.
"What we're trying to do is negotiate a settlement, but Transport Secretary Grant Shapps needs to relinquish the straightjacket on what he's around Network Rail and the train operating companies.
"If you're negotiating with an employer who can't go anywhere because they've got their mandate from the Department for Transport to not do anything. then effectively your negotiations become farcical. What we're seeing is an industry that is unwilling to negotiate through a normal collective bargaining process."
Mr Ireland added the wage freeze has already hit workers' pensions - and insisted the RMT will continue to fight until a deal can be struck. He said: "Our members have got families and just like any workers, when their experiencing hardship their coming to their union to sort out a decent pay increase
"When you're bargaining over paying conditions, the majority of the times we reach agreements. We've never been a union to shy away from going that extra mile for our members to deliver a better deal.
"We're available to try and reach and agreement prior to June 21. In the event of Industrial action going ahead, we will sit down after June 25 and we'll consider appropriate action going forward from July and into the summer if there's not a resolution."
Phil James, North West route director at Network Rail, said: “We continue to meet with the trade unions to discuss their pay concerns and will do all we can to avoid strike action which has the potential to cause misery to hundreds of thousands of Merseyrail passengers throughout the week."
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