By Harry Mottram: The Aslef union has announced strike action that will affect rail services on Friday 12 May, Wednesday 31 May and Saturday 3 June, and the RMT has announced strike action that will affect services on Saturday 13 May say train operator GWR.
They said: “In addition, there will be further disruption from Monday 15 to Saturday 20 May and on Saturday 13 May and Thursday 1 June due to industrial action short of a strike. This action short of strike is likely to cause some short-notice alterations or cancellations. Please check your journey before setting out.”
“On the strike days a reduced, revised timetable will operate across several train operators, including GWR. Many parts of the GWR network will have no service at all. Services will start later and only operate for a limited period during the day.”
“During action short of a strike and the days after strikes, services could also be affected by a limited number of short-notice cancellations and alterations.”
Details of the services can be found at https://www.gwr.com/strike#passenger-information
The Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen is a British trade union representing train drivers. In a statement they said: “ASLEF members at these train companies have been in dispute for almost a year over the failure of management to offer a fair deal on pay. Most of the drivers have not had a pay increase at all since 2019 and with inflation still well over 10% and the cost of living spiralling, this is not acceptable.”
For the Government Transport Secretary Mark Harper said the train drivers had been given a fair offer and the union should put the offer to their members. The Department for Transport said: “It’s hard to believe Aslef would be unaware of the huge impact calling strikes the day before, and action short of strike the day of, the Eurovision final would have on the event.”