More Christmas rail strikes announced starting from December 24

People traveling home for Christmas are facing more chaos as fresh train strikes are announced.

RMT members will stage an extra walk-out on Network Rail from 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on December 27.

Two 48-hour strikes next week – on December 13,14, 16 and 17 – will definitely go ahead, the union also confirmed today.

Strikes on 14 train companies are due to happen, although talks will be held with the Rail Delivery Group on Tuesday.

It comes amid a long-running dispute over pay, jobs and conditions.

The latest offer will be presented to union members, with a recommendation to reject it.

The RMT said there had been no improved offer from the train operating companies, claiming they still awaited a mandate from the government.

General secretary Mick Lynch said it was unfortunate that the union had been ‘compelled to take this action due to the continuing intransigence of the employers’.

He added: ‘We remain available for talks in order to resolve these issues but we will not bow to pressure from the employers and the Government to the detriment of our members.’

Tim Shoveller, Network Rail’s chief negotiator, has claimed the new walk-outs ‘expose RMT’s true priority, using the British public and Network Rail workers as pawns in a fight with the government’.

‘They are playing fast and loose with people’s Christmas plans and the new strike dates announced deliberately target vital engineering work designed to improve the railway’, he said.

‘A significantly improved offer is now on the table that gives Network Rail workers job security, a decent pay rise and some other substantial benefits for employees and their families.’

He added: ‘The Government has played its part by facilitating a fair and decent offer but, by instructing its members to reject it, the RMT has failed to play its part and our rail network now faces more harmful disruption rather than helpful discussion.’

Meanwhile, The Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) has announced strikes planned in Network Rail for December have been called off following ‘the best offer we can achieve through negotiation’.

Members had been due to strike on December 17 and take other forms of industrial action from December 13.

They will vote in the coming weeks on whether to accept the offer, which ‘provides job security and certainty for Network Rail staff through to 2025’.

The TSSA said NR had offered a minimum pay uplift of a consolidated £1,750 or a 5% increase (whichever is greater) to the annual base rates of pay effective from January 2022, and £250 to employees who earn £24,000 a year or less. Pay will rise by 4% from January 2023.

Network Rail is also offering no compulsory redundancies for general grades and controllers until January 31, 2025.

Staff and their families will also get a 75% discount on leisure travel and no unagreed changes to terms and conditions of employment will be made, the union said.

Many other unions are attempting to shield workers from the cost of living crisis, with a looming threat of industrial action from nurses, firefighters and National Highways staff next.

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