Grant Shapps delivers a speech at Siemens Traincare Facility Mobility Division Rail Systems
(Picture: PA)Transport Secretary Grant Shapps issued an 11th-hour direct appeal to rail workers on Thursday not to follow “militant” unions into a wave of strikes which he warned threatens to inflict thousands of job cuts in their industry.
The Cabinet minister stressed that the Rail, Maritime and Transport union no longer had a stranglehold over the train network due to the work revolution fast-tracked by the Covid pandemic with millions of people now able to work from home if needed.
In a speech at Siemens train facility in Hornsey in north London, Mr Shapps said: “Today I appeal directly to rail workers, who I think are less militant than their union leaders…..don’t risk striking your industry out of a future.
“Don’t risk striking yourselves out of a job. Don’t pitch yourselves against the public.
“Let’s fix this situation and get back to building a better railway.”
The Transport Secretary laid out battlelines for an upcoming clash with the unions over the future of Britain’s rail network which he stressed had to modernise to “survive”.
He emphasised: “Today the railway is in a fight.
“It’s not only competing against other forms of public and private transport, it’s in a battle with Zoom, Teams, and remote working.
“In case the unions haven’t noticed, the world has changed.”
The RMT and other unions are threatening to cripple the rail network for most of next week during the middle of the school exam season, a cost-of-living crisis and as Britain seeks to recover from the Covid pandemic.
The industrial action is set to take place on the rail and Tube network on June 21 when exams include A-Level maths, religious studies and German, and GCSE history, and June 23 on rail services, when exams include A-Level chemistry and GCSE physics, as well as on the 25th, with knock-on limited services on the days after walk-outs.
Half of the country’s rail lines will be closed during the strikes, with Transport for London “strongly encouraging” people not to travel on the Tube on June 21 because of the 24-hour walkout by the RMT and Unite.
The disputes have flared over pay, jobs and conditions, with the Transport Salaried Staffs Association announcing more strike ballots at rail companies, increasing the threat of a prolonged summer of disruption.
Steve Montgomery, who chairs the industry body the Rail Delivery Group, said: “These strikes will affect the millions of people who use the train each day, including key workers, students with exams, those who cannot work from home, holidaymakers and those attending important business and leisure events.”
Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said the strikes had been timed to cause “maximum disruption”.
But RMT Senior Assistant General Secretary Eddie Dempsey told ITV’s Good Morning Britain the Government was using this dispute as a “political football”.
He added: “It seems to me the government is determined to pour petrol on the fire…I think they relish the prospect of a dispute so they can spend their time attacking working people and trade unionists.”
