Rail unions announce further January strike
Rail services will be crippled for five consecutive days in January after train drivers' union ASLEF announced a walk out on the 5 January.
The larger RMT Union had already announced strike action for 3-4 and 6-7 January.
The strike action will affect services across 15 train companies, after members voted for further walk outs in the long-running pay dispute.
It follows four days of strike action by the RMT Union last week (13, 14, 16 and 17 December), which severely disrupted the festive trading period for hospitality businesses, with further action planned between Christmas Eve and Boxing Day.
Sushi restaurant group K10, which has four sites in the city of London, had budgeted for a 20-25% drop in sales during last week's strike action but said takings were 45% down on strike days. Shoaib Malik, general manager at Indian fine dining restaurant Kahani London, said the walkouts were costing the business around £4,000 - £5,000 a day in lost trade while Sam's Riverside in London's Hammersmith saw hundreds of bookings cancelled.
The unions are calling for their members to receive pay increases that reflect increases in the cost of living. ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan has said: "We don't want to go on strike but the companies have pushed us into this place. They have not offered our members at these companies a penny – and these are people who have not had an increase since April 2019.
"That means they expect train drivers at these companies to take a real-terms pay cut – to work just as hard for considerably less – when inflation is running at north of 14%."
He added: "We don't want to inconvenience passengers – our friends and families use the railway, too, and we believe in investing in rail for the future of our country – and drivers don't want to lose a day's pay. That's why strikes are always a last resort. But the intransigent attitude of the train companies – with the government acting, with malice, in the shadows – has forced our hand."
The next period of strike action is set to begin on 6pm on Christmas Eve until 6am on 27 December.
Network Rail has said trains will finish around 3pm, with some locations receiving no service at all, and has advised passengers to only travel "if absolutely necessary".
RMT members have also begun an overtime ban, which will remain in place until 2 January and is due to affect available services.
