As wages fail to keep up with inflation, union leader Mick Lynch said rail workers would not accept “being thrown on the scrapheap after being praised as heroes during COVID,” and warned there could be more strikes over the summer.
Train stations were all but deserted across Britain on Saturday, as the third day of a national strike snarled the weekend plans of millions, AP reports.
Train companies said only a fifth of passenger services would run, as about 40,000 cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers and station staff walked off the job in Britain’s biggest and most disruptive railway strike for 30 years.
The same workers held 24-hour strikes on Tuesday and Thursday in a dispute over jobs, pay and working conditions.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport Union is seeking a substantial pay raise as workers face a cost-of-living squeeze amid four decade-high inflation rates. Train companies, meanwhile, are seeking to cut costs and staffing after two years in which emergency government funding kept them afloat during the pandemic.
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