People have been advised not to travel on strike days, and to work from home, in what unions have described as the largest transport strike in over three decades.
The Rail, Maritime, and Transport union (RMT) said in a statement it had held discussions in the past few weeks at senior levels with Network Rail, train operators, and London Underground.
General secretary Mick Lynch said: “Despite the best efforts of our negotiators no viable settlements to the disputes have been created.”
The action by tens of thousands of rail workers will cripple services for most of the week across the country.
The actual strike days for the 40,000 rail workers, across 13 operators, are Tuesday (June 21), Thursday (June 23), and Saturday (June 25). Train companies are warning of widespread disruption to services from Tuesday for the whole week.
Transport for London warned there will be “very little service” across the entire Tube network for the whole of Tuesday when 10,000 union workers join rail workers in the industrial action for just one day.
Lynch blamed the action on the decision by the government “to cut £4 [billion] of funding from our transport systems—£2 [billion] from national rail and £2 [billion] from Transport for London.”
“As a result of this transport austerity imposed by the Government, the employing companies have taken decisions to savage the Railway Pension Scheme and the Transport for London scheme, cutting benefits, making staff work longer, and poorer in retirement, while paying increased contributions.”
Lynch said thousands of jobs were being cut across the rail networks and workers were facing below-inflation pay rises.
“So today, having heard the reports on the discussions that have been taking place we are confirming that the strike action scheduled to take place on 21st, 23rd, and 25th June will go ahead.”
A Rail Delivery Group spokesperson said that the strikes will affect the millions of people who use the train each day, “including key workers, students with exams, those who cannot work from home, holidaymakers, and people attending important business and leisure events.”
A Department for Transport spokesperson said, “The Government committed £16 billion—to keep our railways running throughout the pandemic while ensuring not a single worker lost their job.
“The railway is still on life support, with passenger numbers 25 percent down and anything that drives away even more of them risks killing services and jobs.”
“Train travel for millions more people is now a choice, not a necessity. Strikes stop our customers choosing rail, and they might never return.”
A Network Rail spokesperson said: “Yet again the RMT union are dismissing talks before we’ve even finished, with more planned for tomorrow [Sunday].”
“We’re serious about trying to find a solution and work out a compromise that gives our people a decent pay rise, but it has to be affordable for taxpayers and farepayers.”
