TfL industrial action going ahead while National Rail strikes have been called off

Photo Courtesy of: CGP Grey from London, United Kingdom

Transport for London (TfL) and National Rail workers had recently announced an industrial action to start this Friday 4th of November.

However, National Rail strikes, which were supposed to be held on Saturday 5th, Monday 7th and Wednesday 9th of November, have been called off by the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) leadership on Friday afternoon. National Rail said that there would still be severe disruption on the services, especially on Saturday.

The TfL industrial action, which is still going ahead, will affect the Underground and the Overground every day from Saturday 5th to Friday11th, which might result in severe delays according to TfL staff. 

Despite the industrial action being canceled, RMT, which represents TfL and rail workers, are still negotiating with the government over clashes concerning job cuts, pay, and changes to contracts’ terms and conditions.

Network Rail had declared earlier this year that they were planning on cutting 2,500 maintenance jobs in order to save £2bn over the next two years. 

However, after the RMT described such jobs as "safety critical", Network Rail came back with a revised plan saying that “there would be no more than 2,000 job losses - and that all redundancies could be voluntary.”

RMT leader, Mick Lynch, criticised the proposal, stating that it was not enough and that pay issues should be dealt with as well. He explained that, despite rail staff being offered an 8% pay rise over the past three years, it was not enough given that the current rate of inflation is oscillating around 10.1%. 

Lynch told The Mirror that, through organising industrial action, the union “want[ed] the companies to make […] proposals that will settle the dispute.”, and that Network Rail was expected to present a revised offer to unions very shortly.  

Hence, despite the National Rail strike action being called off, if no decent agreement between the union and the Government is reachedfound, industrial action could be rescheduled and maybe even be prolonged for up to 6 months. 

Aslef and Arriva Rail, who are the representatives for train drivers and Overground workers, respectively, are also currently considering the possibility of additional strike action.