Rail transportation in Great Britain is expected to be disrupted on Saturday because of a widespread strike by train drivers.
According to The Guardian, members of ASLEF - Britain’s trade union for train drivers - agreed to stop work at seven train operators for 24 hours. Although this is expected to paralyze some parts of the network and leave only a few trains running in others, some disruption may be witnessed the next day because of “shift patterns and the knock-on effects” of the strike.
The strike, which coincides with the opening day of the new English football league season, is described by the newspaper as the “most widespread strike by train drivers since rail privatization in 1996”.
Earlier this week, another national strike was held in the country by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' (RMT) union.
ASLEF, along with the RMT and the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, are complaining that their members have not got a pay rise despite rampant inflation, and blame the government for it, whereas the government argues that it is “in the hands of the employers”, the newspaper says.
ASLEF's general-secretary Mick Whelan insisted that his union had been “forced into this position by the companies, who say they have been driven to this by the Tory government”.
British rail industry membership body, the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), claimed that the strike would interfere with the plans of millions of passengers.
“We’re really disappointed that the ASLEF leadership has decided to impose yet more uncertainty and disruption for passengers and businesses in a week which has already seen a strike by the RMT,” said RDG chairman Steve Montgomery. “Like any service or business, we must move with the times and cannot continue to ask taxpayers or passengers for more money when we should instead respond to the huge changes in travel behavior post-COVID.”
Montgomery urged ASLEF to deal with the issue at hand via talks, but Whelan responded that, although they are “happy to talk”, the train operators “say there’s nothing to talk about, they have no offer to make”.