April dates, drivers’ walkouts, and the companies affected | EUROtoday

Train drivers at 16 rail corporations are to stage a contemporary wave of strikes subsequent week in a long-running dispute over pay, threatening to disrupt households throughout the nation through the Easter faculty holidays.

The walkouts are the most recent in a sequence of strikes carried out by the Aslef union in a 20-month row.

Union leaders have introduced separate walkouts affecting the London Underground.

Here is all the pieces you could know concerning the nationwide rail strikes:

When will the strikes happen?

• Thursday April 4 – Saturday April 6: Aslef members will refuse to work their relaxation days
• Friday April 5 – Monday April 8: Aslef workers will maintain a rolling programme of one-day walkouts between April 5 and eight, coupled with a six-day ban on extra time.
• Monday April 8 – Tuesday April 9: Members will refuse to work their relaxation days

Which prepare traces are affected?

Friday, April 5: Drivers will strike on Avanti West Coast, East Midlands Railway, West Midlands Trains, and CrossCountry.

Saturday April 6: Strikes will hit Chiltern, GWR, LNER, Northern, and TransPennine.

Monday, April 8: Strikes will happen on c2c, Greater Anglia, GTR Great Northern Thameslink, Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, South Western Railway important line and depot drivers, and SWR Island Line.

Why are the strikes taking place ?

The Aslef union stated it needed to extend the stress on the “intransigent” prepare corporations and the “tone-deaf” authorities following a sequence of strikes stretching again 20 months.

Train drivers haven’t had a pay rise for 5 years, since April 2019, Aslef stated. Union bosses stated they’d been in negotiations with the prepare operators, represented by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), however had heard nothing additional since gaining a contemporary mandate for one more six months of business motion final month.

Aslef basic secretary Mick Whelan stated: “Last month, when we announced renewed mandates for industrial action, because under the Tories’ draconian anti-union laws we have to ballot our members every six months, we called on the train companies, and the Government, to come to the table for meaningful talks to negotiate a new pay deal for train drivers who have not had an increase in salary since 2019.

“Our members voted overwhelmingly – yet again – for strike action.

“Those votes show a clear rejection by train drivers of the ridiculous offer put to us in April last year by the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), which knew that offer would be rejected because a land grab for all the terms and conditions we have negotiated over the years would never be accepted by our members.

“Since then train drivers have voted, time and again, to take action in pursuit of a pay rise. That’s why Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, is being disingenuous when he says that offer should have been put to members.

“Drivers wouldn’t vote for industrial action, again and again and again, if they thought that was a good offer. That offer was dead in the water in April last year and Mr Harper knows that.

“We have given the Government every opportunity to come to the table but it is now clear they do not want to resolve this dispute. They are happy for it go on and on.”

What have the prepare corporations stated?

A spokesman for Rail Delivery Group, which represents the 16 prepare operators impacted by the strikes, stated: “Nobody wins when industrial action impacts people’s lives and livelihoods, and we will work hard to minimise any disruption to our passengers.

“We want to resolve this dispute, but the Aslef leadership need to recognise that hard-pressed taxpayers are continuing to contribute an extra £54m a week just to keep services running post-Covid.

“We continue to seek an agreement with the Aslef leadership and remain open to talks to find a solution to this dispute.”