ANOTHER rail union has announced strikes as disputes over jobs, pay and conditions worsen.
The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) said thousands of its members at seven train companies will walk out on August 18 and 20.
The pay protests will take place on the same days as the Rail, Maritime and Transport union is striking against Network Rail and 14 train operators.
Strike action will be taken across Avanti West Coast, c2c, East Midlands Railway, CrossCountry, Great Western Railway, LNER, and Southeastern services.
Whilst the networks taking part are predominantly based in England, some of the companies do run services in Scotland, including LNER and Avanti West Coast. It is not yet known how much impact this will have north of the border.
TSSA has held off on serving notice for industrial action in Network Rail in order to hold eleventh hour talks over pay, job security and conditions.
There is still time to serve notice for action on August 18 and 20 if these talks are unsuccessful.
TSSA general secretary Manuel Cortes, said: “This is a momentous day for our members.
"The Tories’ cost-of-living crisis is the worst in living memory. Essential items like food, energy and clothing costs are going through the roof yet the Government has chosen to pick a political fight with rail workers.
“Most of our members are going into a third or fourth year of pay freezes, seeing their real take home pay decrease. For many rail workers in our union this is the first time they have been directly involved in an industrial dispute.
“We do not take strike action lightly, but enough is enough. The Conservative government is the clear block to a deal for rail workers.
“Transport Secretary Grant Shapps must either personally come to the table or empower train operators to reach a deal on pay, job security and conditions.
“Instead of wanting to resolve this dispute, we now see proposals for hundreds of ticket office closures and widespread job cuts across our railways.
“We’ve been warning of a Summer of discontent across our railways for months, and sadly it is an ever-closer reality.”
A spokesperson for the Department of Transport said: "It’s hugely disappointing that, rather than commit to serious dialogue with the industry, the TSSA is seeking to cause further misery to passengers by cynically coordinating strikes to cause maximum disruption to the rail network.
“Our railway is in desperate need of modernisation to make it work better for passengers and be financially sustainable for the long term.
“The only thing more strikes will do, however, is wreak further havoc on the very people unions claim to stand up for – people who, on average, stumped up £600 per household to keep our railways running throughout the pandemic while ensuring not a single worker lost their job.
“We urge the TSSA to reconsider and work with its employers, not against them, to agree a new way forward.”
It also said that railway workers have seen an average pay increase over the last decade of 25% and that they wer not aware of any rail worker who was entering a fourth year of pay freeze.
They also added that a final decision had not yet been made on ticket offices and that they never said they wanted every one of them to be closed.
