Train drivers on LNER are set to stage a series of strikes every weekend from this month until November – despite having just been offered a bumper pay deal.
Hundreds of members of Aslef will walk out every Saturday between August 31 and November 9 and every Sunday from September 1 to November 10, a total of 22 days.
The announcement of fresh rail chaos comes just days after the trade union struck a pay deal with the Labour Government, which will give workers a 14 per cent raise.
In a ‘no strings’ agreement between ministers and Aslef, train drivers will see their average salaries rise to nearly £70,000.
Labour has been accused of prioritising their union paymasters over rail passengers, pensioners and taxpayers after announcing a series of pay deals for public sector workers since coming to power. This includes a 22 per cent hike over two years for junior doctors, who have staged damaging NHS strikes in recent months.
At the same time, Labour is axing winter fuel payments for millions of retirees as Chancellor Rachel Raves looks to fill a £22billion ‘black hole’ in the public finances.
A passenger looks through the closed Moor Street Station in Birmingham when Aslef staged a previous strike on May 31 last year
GPs are currently demanding an 11 per cent funding rise in the hope of becoming the next group of public sector workers to secure a cash boost from Sir Keir Scamer and his Labour Government. Aslef said the LNER dispute is separate from the union’s long-running row over pay, as they claimed a breakdown in industrial relations and breaching of agreements.
LNER runs the passenger service on the East Coast main line betweenLondon and Edinburgh. Aslef donated £100,000 to the Labour Party in the second week of the general election campaign.
