RMT and Aslef railway workers strike outside Worcester Shrub Hill

Great Western Railway and West Midlands Railway employees are on strike today, causing the worst rail disruption of the year so far.

Many areas of the country, including Worcester, have been left without any services at all.

At Worcester Shrub Hill, members of both the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and ASLEF met to make their voices heard as cars passing by honked to show their support.

Mick Whelan, general secretary of ASLEF, said that his members are increasingly angry at the lack of progress in the dispute over inadequate pay-rises.

“We would much rather not be in this position,” he said.

“Withdrawing your labour, although a fundamental human right, is always a last resort, but the companies, with the unseen hand of the Government right behind them, seem determined to force our hand.

“They are telling train drivers to take a real-terms pay cut. With inflation now running at 12.3 per cent, they are saying that drivers who have not had an increase for three years should be prepared to work just as hard, for just as long, for considerably less.

“The companies with whom we are in dispute have not offered us a penny, and we think it is outrageous that they expect us to put up with a real-terms pay cut for a third year in a row.”

ASLEF workers on strike (Image: Aslef workers on strike)

Meanwhile, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch has written to the new transport secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan, urging her to take “urgent steps to allow a negotiated settlement”.

He also said that railway industry bosses stand to gain up to £61,000 a year from the Chancellor’s tax cuts, more than most RMT members will earn in a year.

Mr Lynch, who met Ms Trevelyan last month, wrote: “Despite our positive discussion, the Chancellor’s intervention has made an already difficult dispute harder to resolve.

“I am also concerned the Government has recently been taking action that is lining the pockets of the ‘railway rich’ whilst rail workers continue to endure pay freezes and real-terms pay cuts.

“Railway bosses stand to gain up to £61,000 per annum from the Chancellor’s tax giveaway for the better off. These people stand to get more from your Government’s tax cut than most of my members will earn in a year and in many cases twice as much.”

RMT union members outside Worcester Shrub Hill on Saturday (Image: RMT union members outside Worcester Shrub Hill on Saturday)