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Extra journey chaos is on the best way as prepare drivers at 16 rail corporations are set to participate in a recent wave of strikes in April.
Members of the Aslef union will stage one-day walkouts from 5-8 April, coinciding with a ban on time beyond regulation from 4-6 and 8-9 April.
The union stated it needed to extend the stress on the “intransigent” prepare corporations and the “tone-deaf” authorities following a collection of strikes stretching again 20 months.
London Waterloo throughout Aslef’s earlier strike in January 2024
(Getty)
Aslef have stated that prepare drivers haven’t had a pay rise since April 2019.
Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and CrossCountry will likely be affected first when the strikes start on 5 April. Chiltern Railways, GWR, LNER, Northern, and TransPennine will likely be affected the following day.
On 8 April, the strikes will have an effect on c2c, Higher Anglia, GTR Nice Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Specific, South Western Railway’s fundamental line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line.
The 8 April strike coincides with a walkout by prepare drivers on the London Underground in a separate dispute over working phrases and circumstances.
Aslef normal secretary Mick Whelan stated: “Final month, after we introduced renewed mandates for industrial motion, as a result of beneath the Tories’ draconian anti-union legal guidelines now we have to poll our members each six months, we referred to as on the prepare corporations, and the federal government, to return to the desk for significant talks to barter a brand new pay deal for prepare drivers who haven’t had a rise in wage since 2019.
“Our members voted overwhelmingly – but once more – for strike motion.”
Mr Whelan added that the earlier supply introduced to its members is “useless within the water”, and that the union haven’t heard from officers, together with the transport secretary, since new strike mandates had been introduced 4 weeks in the past.
A Rail Supply Group spokesperson stated: “No person wins when industrial motion impacts individuals’s lives and livelihoods, and we’ll work exhausting to minimise any disruption to our passengers.
“We wish to resolve this dispute, however the Aslef management must recognise that hard-pressed taxpayers are persevering with to contribute an additional £54m every week simply to maintain companies operating post-Covid. We proceed to hunt an settlement with the Aslef management and stay open to talks to discover a answer to this dispute.”
The Impartial has contacted the Division for Transport for remark.
