ASLEF National Week of Strike Action Affects Northern and TransPennine Trains on Friday 8th December
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Sheffield Trade Union Council says:
“Train drivers have had no pay rise for nearly 5 years! Of course they are right to strike to more pay!”
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Picket Line on Cross Turner Street from 4am to 4pm Friday 8th December
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Train drivers at 16 TOCs [train operating companies] began a week of industrial action on Friday 1 December in a long-running dispute over pay. ASLEF members walked out at EMR and LNER on Saturday 2 December; at Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Great Northern Thameslink, and WMT on Sunday 3 December; at C2C and Greater Anglia on Tuesday 5 December; at Southeastern, Southern/Gatwick Express, SWR main line, SWR depot drivers, and Island Line on Wednesday 6 December; at CrossCountry and GWR on Thursday 7 December; and will strike at Northern and TPT on Friday 8 December. All members will also refuse to work any overtime from Friday 1st to Saturday 9th December.
Martin Mayer, Secretary Sheffield TUC said today “Our train drivers have had a raw deal. As it stands, they have not had a pay rise for nearly 5 years. They have only been offered 4% for each year 2022 and 2023 – well below inflation and well below what other public sector workers have settled for – but conditional on acceptable changes to their terms and conditions. In other words they would be paying for their own pay rise. That is not acceptable”
Sheffield train drivers working for Northern and TransPennine Xpress who are based at the Sheffield depot will be on strike tomorrow Friday 8th December. Thye would welcome supporters at any time tomorrow to drop by at their picket line on Cross Turner Street.
Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s General Secretary, said: ‘We are going on strike again not to inconvenience passengers, but to express our disgust at the intransigence of this government, and the bad faith shown by the private companies which employ us. It is clear that the Tory government does not want to resolve this dispute. We haven’t had a meeting with Mark Harper, the Transport Secretary, since December 2022. We haven’t had a meeting with Huw Merriman, the Rail Minister, since January this year. And we haven’t heard from the employers, the private sector train operating companies for whom we work, since April.”