Train drivers who are members of Aslef have taken part in another round of rolling one-day strikes over pay and threats to terms and conditions. The action is against 16 train operating companies. Neither the Tory transport secretary Mark Harper, nor rail minister Huw Merriman, nor the bosses of the rail companies, have met with Aslef for at least a year.
Socialist Party members once again visited picket lines. A Swansea picket told Alec Thraves: “We’ve been out for so long, there’s no chance of us giving up now!”
Birmingham Socialist Party members report that strikers explained it’s now five years since train drivers have had a pay rise. And for the last two years the train companies, with the Tory government squarely behind them, have been saying that any increase to match the rising cost of living will have to be traded for terms and conditions.
At Newcastle Central Station, strikers discussed with Elaine Brunskill how, on their last strike, the company had attempted to use the Tories’ minimum service level legislation, but the union’s decisive response, with the threat of an extra five days of strike action, forced a humiliating climbdown. Strikers had drawn the conclusion that militant trade union action can make such legislation unworkable.
