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WorldRMT union members vote to end strikes

Date:

RMT union members vote to end strikes

The RMT in Network Rail has reported that its members have chosen to accept a salary offer.

Following a dispute over salary and working conditions, about 20,000 employees and the government have been at odds for months.

The strikes in January disrupted thousands of commuters’ travel plans.

Members voted 76 percent to 24 percent to approve the offer in a turnout of nearly 90 percent.

Members of the RMT union and PCS (Public and Commercial Services) union demonstrating outside the UK Government Office at Queen Elizabeth House in Edinburgh, over pay and conditions. Picture date: Wednesday March 15, 2023. PA Photo. Hundreds of thousands of workers will stage a strike on Budget Day in what threatens to be the biggest walkout since the current wave of industrial action started last year. Members of several trade unions will take action, mounting hundreds of picket lines across the country amid continuing anger over issues including pay, jobs, pensions and conditions. Those striking on Wednesday include teachers, university lecturers, civil servants, junior doctors, London Underground drivers and BBC journalists. See PA story SCOTLAND RMT. Photo credit should read: Jane Barlow/PA Wire
Around 20,000 members of the RMT have now voted to accept the offer (Picture: PA)
Mick Lynch, general secretary of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) (sixth left blue jacket), joins union members on the picket line outside Euston station in London during a rail strike in a long-running dispute over jobs and pensions. Picture date: Saturday March 18, 2023. PA Photo. See PA story INDUSTRY Strikes Rail. Photo credit should read: Jeff Moore/PA Wire
The last round of RMT strikes was in January.

Members of other unions including Aslef (Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen) are still taking strike action.

The new offer which was also improved with the new money was made following the most recent strike action in January and the threat of more action.

Key features of the offer include an uplift on salaries of between 14.4 percent for the lowest paid grades to 9.2 percent for the highest paid.

It also includes a total uplift on basic earnings between 15.2 percent for the lowest-paid grades to 10.3 percent for the highest-paid grades.

There will also be increased backpay, and there will be a renewal of the no compulsory redundancy agreement until January 2025.

Network Rail withdrew their previous because the offer was conditional on RMT accepting the company’s ‘modernising maintenance’ agenda, which the union will continue to scrutinize and challenge including on safety.

There will also be discounted rail travel benefits.

RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said that when the union first declared the dispute with Network Rail a year ago in the Spring of 2022, RMT was told that Network Rail workers would only get two percent to three percent.

Mr Lynch said today: ‘However, since then strike action and the inspiring solidarity and determination of members has secured new money and a new offer which has been clearly accepted by our members and that dispute is now over.

‘Our dispute with the Train Operating Companies remains firmly on and our members recent highly effective strike action across the fourteen train companies has shown their determination to secure a better deal. 

‘If the government now allows the train companies to make the right offer, we can then put that to our members but until then the strike action scheduled for March 30 and April 1 will take place. 

‘The ball is in the government’s court.’

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