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“WE will not weaken, and we will not walk away,” ASLEF General Secretary Mick Whelan has told RAIL in an exclusive interview.
Speaking the day before the latest round of a series of one-day strikes, in the 18-month dispute with the 14 train operating companies (TOCs) controlled by the Department for Transport, Whelan was clear that ASLEF is ready to do a deal on the right terms.
“We’ll be here for as long as it takes, but we are willing to talk,” was his message to the Government.
He added: “We’ve done 14 pay deals in the last 12 months. We don’t have a problem in Scotland, we don’t have a problem in Wales, nor with open access operators, the Elizabeth line, Eurostar or anywhere else. We have a Westminster problem.
“It would have been resolved by now if it had been an industrial dispute - but it’s a political dispute with the DfT, Treasury and the powers that be.”
In a change to previous tactics, Whelan said that ASLEF’s move to target geographical regions, with one strike per TOC per region per day, is designed to “have maximum impact”.
The rolling programme of one-day strikes, coupled with a nine-day overtime ban that ran from Friday December 1, is “designed to ratchet up the pressure”.
And by spreading the strike action, the “ramifications for the rail industry will be greater”.
Whelan added that the new Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act, which specifies that a minimum service must run during times of industrial action, will not affect any future action. Although it became law on July 20, it has yet to be enacted. This will be done via the Strikes (Minimum Service Levels:
Passenger Railway Services) Regulations 2023.
Last month, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said that the Regulations would be presented to Parliament “shortly” and would “be in place by mid-December, in time to cover any disruption over the Christmas period” (RAIL 996).
Whelan responded: “Our geographical action is an indication that we can vary tactics to accommodate whatever new legislation may be put in place to have the maximum impact.
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