Around 5,000 drivers staged a 24-hour strike against seven train companies across England. It came on the second full day of the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham and the first day of the new English football season. The drivers’ strike followed four days of strikes since June by rail cleaners, signalmen, maintenance workers and station staff in a dispute over wages, jobs and working conditions. Unions are fighting for substantial pay rises to tackle inflation of more than 9% and the worst cost-of-living crisis in decades. Rail companies are seeking to cut costs and staff after two years battered by the pandemic, in which emergency government funding kept them afloat. Unions accuse the Conservative government of preventing the train companies – which are private but heavily regulated – from making a better offer, which the government denies. Writing in the Times of London, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps accused “recruited union leaders” of resisting needed reforms and “taking the taxpayer for a ride, but not in the way they should”. Mick Whelan, leader of train drivers’ union ASLEF, said workers just wanted a “realistic” pay rise. “For the last three years, we have had no pay rises,” he told the BBC. “The people we work for will make hundreds of millions of pounds and give money to their shareholders.” More strikes are planned for August in what is shaping up to be a summer of travel disruption, in Britain and around the world. Air travelers in many countries are facing delays and disruption as airports struggle to deal with staff shortages and rising demand for flights after two years battered by the pandemic. Lorry drivers and Britons leaving for a ferry holiday faced long waits at the port of Dover last week amid delays caused by Brexit and a lack of French border officials.
