Commuters on edge with risk of more strife

Britons are steeling themselves for the prospect of more strikes wreaking havoc on rail and road networks as negotiations between union leaders and transport authorities remain deadlocked.

Commuters and other travelers have endured a summer with periodic halts to services. The last round of industrial action stopped rail and bus services in London for three days earlier this month.

No further strike action has been announced, but with talks between the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers, or RMT, and Network Rail at an impasse, transport users remain on edge with the possibility of more disruptions. Network Rail operates Britain's railway infrastructure.

At the heart of the workers' grievances are concerns over pay, pensions, working conditions and potential job losses as the cost-of-living crisis drags on－the latter driven by inflation hovering at 40-year highs.

The Transport Salaried Staffs Association, or TSSA, and the train drivers' union, the Associated Society of Locomotive Engineers and Firemen, are also involved in the industrial dispute.

Mick Pender, a lecturer in human resource management at Keele Business School in Staffordshire, said that the rail dispute appears to have reached an impasse and the positions of the negotiating parties have become entrenched.

"We are witnessing the government's attempts to continue its agenda of modernizing and reforming public services," Pender said. "There is also, according to rail operators and government, a 2-billion-pound ($2.3 billion) funding deficit in national rail and the London Underground that has resulted out of a decline in passenger numbers as many people continue to work from home," Pender said.

Key principle

He said the key principle on the part of rail operators is that any settlement will lead to greater efficiencies.

"But this, of course, threatens long-established ways of working and this puts pressure on those unions involved who are trying to defend the terms and conditions of members many of whom, certainly in the case of the RMT, are on wages between 25,000 and 31,000 pounds, and who rely on established bonus payments, rest days and unsocial working allowances that are under threat," Pender said.

The RMT claimed that thousands of maintenance jobs were being cut across the rail network and there have been no guarantees that there won't be compulsory redundancies.

Transport Secretary Grant Shapps caused fury among the unions after he told media this month that he would consider enacting legislation known as Section 188, a compulsory redundancy notice, which would force through some measures that brought on the strikes.

In response, the TSSA said: "Such notice for compulsory redundancies has already been issued by Network Rail with their proposal to cut up to 1,900 jobs from the industry. This is not 'reform', it's just cuts. It is one of the reasons why TSSA members are on strike."

RMT General Secretary Mick Lynch said the transport secretary had "no authority to issue Section 188 notifications".

"Instead of threatening to cut thousands of safety-critical jobs, introducing driver-only trains, closing ticket offices, bailing out the private rail companies as well as bringing in more anti-union laws, the government and the employers should enter meaningful negotiations with RMT," he said.

Pender said: "What we are seeing throughout the dispute is effectively an attempt by the government to control any potential outcome; the government is very involved in terms of setting the parameters of the negotiations on the part of the employers."

Manuel Cortes, the TSSA's general secretary, has written to the transport secretary calling on Shapps to "break the impasse in the rail dispute".

The union believes that Shapps has the power to intervene to find a solution, and that rail contracts stipulate the Department for Transport is ultimately responsible for changes relating to rail employees.

Cortes said: "We have made it clear from the start of this dispute that we do not take industrial action lightly and always look for a solution."