Train strikes which have plagued the country over the past eighteen months could be at an end after train drivers at the ASLEF union received a new pay offer which is to be put to members
If the drivers vote yes, it will end the national two-year pay dispute during which drivers have taken 18 days of strike action as well as refusing to work non-contractual overtime.
The no-strings three-phase offer is for 5% for 2022-2023; 4.75% for 2023 to 2024; and 4.5% for 2024 to 2025 all backdated
Mick Whelan, ASLEF’s general secretary, who negotiated the deal with Simon Weller, assistant general secretary, and Dave Calfe, executive committee president, emerged from talks at the DfT in Horseferry Road to say:
‘We are pleased that after being treated with utter contempt for the last two years by the privatised train companies, and the previous government that was pulling their strings, we finally have a new government – a Labour government – that listens and wants to make the railway work for staff, for passengers, and for the taxpayer.
‘The offer is a good offer – a fair offer – and it is what we have always asked for, a clean offer, without a land grab for our terms & conditions that the companies, and previous government, tried to take in April last year.
