Public sector strikes are threatening to spiral out of control after train drivers and border guards announced new walkouts on Friday. This is in spite of the new Labour Government agreeing inflation-busing pay rises for various public sector workers. The Telegraph has more.
Families face end of summer travel misery as passport control staff prepare to down tools at Heathrow airport between Saturday August 31st and Tuesday September 3rd.
Meanwhile, train drivers at LNER, which runs services between London and Edinburgh, are to strike every weekend for the next three months. Aslef announced the strike just 48 hours after securing an almost 15% pay rise for drivers, spread across three years, to end a separate dispute.
Earlier this month, Sir Keir Starmer’s Government also gave a 22% pay rise to junior doctors, spread across two years, to end their long-running industrial action.
The new strike announcements came after warnings that inflation-busting pay offers to end industrial action would encourage other unions to strike.
On Friday morning, Nick Thomas-Symonds, a Cabinet Office minister, had said it was “unfair” to suggest the pay deals would lead to more walkouts.
He and other ministers have argued that the agreements would ultimately save money, given the wider cost to the economy of strikes.
Kieran Mullan, a Tory shadow transport minister, said: “After a no strings attached offer to throw cash at a Labour-backing union, it should shock nobody that more strikes are on the cards.
“It’s a taste of what is to come – a nationalised train service seeing Labour-backing unions staging walkouts despite a bumper pay deal.
“All Labour are doing is encouraging the unions into more of this anti-passenger action, putting our rail network at the beck and call of unions whilst passengers pay the price. These strikes risk spiralling out of control under Labour.”
James Cleverly, a Tory leadership candidate, said: “The Labour Government has been played by its union paymasters. This latest wave of strikes will be devastating for families who rely on train travel to see their loved ones.
“Offering a no-strings pay deal to militant strikers whilst stripping millions of pensions of their winter fuel payment is nothing short of a national embarrassment.”
Border Force workers will walk out on the final weekend of the summer holidays. Terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5 at Heathrow, the UK’s busiest airport, are all set to be affected by the walkout.
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