By Stefan Boscia
Rishi Sunak has sent a fresh warning to unions ahead of upcoming Christmas strikes, with Number 10 urging transport union bosses to reconsider the current pay offer.
Number 10 said National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) boss Mick Lynch should take the current pay offer “seriously” as it is “generous and fair”.
Network Rail has offered the RMT a 9 per cent pay rise over two years.
Lynch today said the series of Christmas rail strikes will do “real damage” to people, with the transport network set to be crippled during the busiest periods of the festive season.
Rail workers are planning to go on strike from 6pm on Christmas eve until 7am on 27 December, after announcing extended industrial action yesterday.
The RMT is also planning a 48-hour walkout next week, with timetables set to be reduced by around 80 per cent.
Workers are calling for a pay rise that comes close to matching the UK’s 10 per cent inflation rate and for guarantees of job protections in the face of increasing automation at rail stations.
The Prime Minister’s official spokesman said: “We believe the RMT need to take this offer seriously. We’ve been fair and reasonable in our approach. We’ve facilitated the sort of offer the RMT has been calling for, a fair pay rise with no compulsory redundancy.
“These additional strikes scheduled over Christmas mean the RMT risk driving away more people from the railways at a time when passengers and businesses should be taking advantage of this festive period. That will only add to the railways’ major funding issues that have to be put on a sustainable footing.”
Lynch told the BBC: “We have to respond to what the companies are doing and they are doing that very deliberately.
“They are seeking to ratchet up the dispute, they are escalating the dispute in some ways, by saying that we will impose these changes.
“If we do not respond then those changes will go through without a response from us and our members will have to suffer the consequences, including job losses and changes to their working lives that are unacceptable to them and that includes more unsocial hours and more weekend working.”
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