National Rail strike threat results in new offer

The RMT and TSSA national Network Rail strike, planned for 25-26 May, was postponed following a new pay offer.

Network Rail has now offered a 1% consolidated pay increase for 2015 backdated to January, instead of the £500 one-off lump sum previously on the table.

For 2016, a 1.4% increase is now offered, along with a possible further 0.7% if a ‘smart working’ agreement is reached – though details of this are yet to be seen. The original offer was a pay increase tied to the Retail Price Index measure of inflation.

If agreed, this would be a two-year deal rather than the four-year deal previously proposed, so pay negotiations would start again in 2017.

A national RMT reps’ meeting on 28 May, following feedback from rank and file members, will decide whether to ballot members on this offer or resume action. Network Rail is also threatening a legal challenge to the TSSA’s strike ballot, so it is important that the mood for strike action is still strong among RMT members.

While this new offer shows the impact of threatening strike action – Network Rail bosses previously said they’d made their ‘final offer’ – it also shows that more could be won though industrial action, so Socialist Party members think the offer should be rejected.

One rail worker told the Socialist: “At a time when the company are making big profits, my hope is that workers instruct their reps to insist on a decent pay rise, while keeping an assurance on job security and safety. If needed, we should use the strike mandate which was overwhelmingly voted for and make the bosses listen.”

The RMT is also preparing to ballot on London Underground (LU) over night time tube plans and a new pay offer, with other unions likely to do the same. LU is pressuring staff to accept new rosters that would rip up current agreements and lock workers into anti-social hours and appalling working conditions. 24-hour tube running is planned to start in September.