Labour's Wes Streeting becomes latest frontbencher to BACK strikes

‘I’d be voting to go on strike’: Wes Streeting becomes latest Labour frontbencher to BACK union walkout just hours after Keir Starmer said his party does NOT support barons holding the country to ransom

Britons face more travel misery as thousands of railways workers voted to stage three days of strikes in June
The Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) and 13 train operators voted to strike after talks broke down
Strike action will take place on June 21, 23 and 25 with a further strike planned for London Underground
Multiple-day strikes could lead to lights going out in places due to freight services to power stations being hit
And now union members at Royal Mail, BT, airports and councils and schools could strike over new pay deals

Labour descended into more chaos over railways strikes today after a senior MP admitted he would vote to walk out just hours after Sir Keir Starmer insisted they ‘shouldn’t go ahead’.

Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary Wes Streeting has revealed he is behind the 50,000 RMT members who plan to shut down Britain’s railways and Tube network at the end of June.

Britain’s unions have vowed to bring the country to a standstill in a ‘summer of discontent’ not seen since the 1926 General Strike with railway and Tube workers set to be bolstered by 155,000 comrades at airports, Royal Mail and BT. More than 1million council workers and teachers could strike in the Autumn.

Mr Streeting’s support came after shadow cabinet colleague Lisa Nandy also said she was on the side of the strikers.

Speaking on the BBC’s Question Time last night he claimed that while he wished the strikes weren’t happening, he said: ‘Put it this way, if I was a member of the RMT and my job was at risk like this, then I would be voting to go on strike’. But he added that the Government must step in to broker a pay deal that will call off the industrial action.

Labour has been accused of dithering on the issue, after the party failed to condemn the walkouts for two days in a row.

Sir Keir Starmer failed to mention the strikes at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Last night his spokesman claimed: ‘We’ve been clear in the position that the strikes shouldn’t go ahead’, adding: ‘There is still time for there to be a resolution and we would encourage the Government to play a more active role in working with Network Rail and the unions to ensure that they don’t go ahead.’

RMT chief Mick Lynch (pictured) and Manuel Cortes Gen. Sec. of The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA), are driving the industrial action

MailOnline can lay bare the strikes being planned to wreck the summer starting at the end of June and now potentially to mid-July

Yesterday Lisa Nandy, Labour’s levelling up spokesman, said her party was ‘on the rail workers’ side’.

The £125,000-a-year ‘fat cat’ union boss threatening to grind the UK to a halt: Former electrician Mick Lynch lives in London home worth almost £1m

General Secretary Mick Lynch – who once sighed ‘All I want from life is a bit of socialism’ – collects a £84,174 salary

The militant RMT union barons causing chaos for commuters are spearheaded by union leader Mick Lynch, who once sighed ‘All I want from life is a bit of socialism’ – and now collects a salary of £84,174.

His package is reportedly more than £124,000-a-year and he lived in a terraced house in Ealing (pictured) worth approaching £1million. He paid £394,000 for it in 2008.

Lynch has said he ‘will not rest’ until a ‘just’ agreement is reached in the latest strikes.

In March, Lynch organised the worst Tube strikes in five years – with two days of walkouts against changes to jobs, pensions and working conditions.

Lynch was once considered a centrist compared with former general secretary Bob Crow — but, after taking charge, he said: ‘The unions have got to make a militant stand – and use the strike weapon wherever it’s appropriate’.

He left school at 16 and trained as an electrician but was blacklisted due to union activity, so joined the railways.

But the party later backtracked, with a spokesman saying ‘she didn’t say she supports the strike’.

Miss Nandy went on to say that Labour was also ‘on the public’s side on this’. But she failed to outright condemn the strikes or say which side she supported most, telling ITV’s Good Morning Britain: ‘We want to avoid the strikes and we’re on the public’s side on this. We’re also on the rail workers’ side.

‘They’re dealing with the same pressures that everyone else is – the cost of food, the cost of soaring inflation rates, taxes going up.’

However, she failed to mention that many rail workers’ average salaries have increased beyond that of those in nursing, teaching, firefighting and policing.

Figures released by the Department for Transport showed that last year the median salary of rail workers was £44,000, about 70 per cent above the national average of £26,000. The median refers to the midpoint of a range of numbers ordered from smallest to largest. In comparison, nurses earned £31,000, teachers £37,000 and care workers £17,000.

Salaries for train drivers are an average of £54,000-a-year, according to Glassdoor, which collates data from staff. Trainees begin on around £25,000, which doubles when they qualify. The most experienced drivers can earn £70,000 before overtime with some operators.

The strikes will disrupt work, school and events for millions of people, with students who miss their GCSE exams set to be given a grade that takes ‘circumstances beyond their control’ into consideration, it has emerged.

Schools minister Robin Walker said he is ‘deeply concerned’ about the impact of forthcoming rail strikes on school pupils travelling to sit exams, and urged the unions to ‘think very carefully’ about this.

Speaking on LBC, he said: ‘I’m deeply concerned. It’s a great and positive thing that we have exams under way and that students are reaping the rewards for their hard work over the years by being able to take part in those.

‘It would be terrible if in any way this were disrupted by further industrial action.

‘I understand that at least one of the days is due to be on a weekend, which is welcome from my perspective, but, fundamentally, I don’t want to see strikes interrupting children’s opportunities in life, and I think the unions need to think very carefully about this.

‘They need to recognise that they are better off coming back to the negotiating table and engaging in the constructive negotiation about the future of railways, in which the Government has invested £16 billion to keep them running through the pandemic, and make sure actually that they can deliver on their public sector duty to get people to schools, to work.

‘I would strongly urge that they don’t disrupt the exam period – that has a long-term impact on children’s lives, and I just think that would be unacceptable.’

Two more unions joined the wave of strikes yesterday – as Boris Johnson vowed not to give in to the left-wing barons working together to spoil the summer for millions of Britons by shutting down the UK’s railways and London’s Tube network at the end of June and again in mid-July.

Train drivers on Hull Trains, Greater Anglia and Croydon Tramlink are to stage walkouts later this month in disputes over pay, Aslef has revealed, while rail union TSSA has this afternoon served notice to ballot hundreds of Avanti West Coast station staff earning less than £35,000.

It came as a deal was struck with recently nationalised ScotRail and its train drivers, who agreed a 5% pay deal with bosses.

But with 50,000 RMT members striking at the end of the month over job losses, pay freezes and the closure of station ticket offices, Prime Minister Boris Johnson hit back and said: ‘There are fully-manned ticket offices in this country that barely sell a ticket a week’. And in a message for all the unions he said he will ‘grasp the nettle’ on transport reforms and told commuter he is ‘on your side on cutting the cost of transport’.

Aslef announced strikes at three companies in separate rows over pay, while the Transport Salaried Staffs Association (TSSA) served notice of an industrial action ballot.

Members of Aslef on Hull Trains will strike on June 26, at Greater Anglia on June 23 and on Croydon Tramlink on June 28 and 29 and July 13 and 14.

The TSSA said it will ballot hundreds of workers for industrial action at train operator Avanti West Coast in a dispute over pay, conditions and job security. It said it is demanding from Avanti a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies for 2022, no unagreed changes to terms and conditions, and a pay increase which reflects the rising cost of living. Voting will start on June 15 and close two weeks later, with the union saying strikes could start in mid-July.

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer meets President Michael D Higgins in Dublin yesterday amid party infighting over strikes

Labour MPs have also come out in favour of the strikes planned for the end of June

In a picture of things to come, there were major delays across the Tube this morning. The network will be shut down by strikes

Planes, no trains, and automobiles: How to get to Glastonbury during June’s rail strikes

Mick Lynch’s hard-left RMT union is plotting the biggest rail strikes in more than 30 years and is set to bring Britain to a standstill on a scale not seen for generations – with some comparing it to the 1926 General Strike.

The mass walkouts are set to take place on June 21, 23 and 25 – all while the Glastonbury Festival takes place.

So are you going to Glastonbury? And are you wondering how you can still get there? Here are some tips.

DRIVE

The trains may be down, but you can still drive to the festival.

From south London: M3 then A303 and A37. (Sat Nav TA11 7DP).
From Swindon: M4 then A350 onto the A361. (Sat Nav BA4 4LY).
From the North East: A1 or M1, M25 to M3 (Junction 12), then A303 and A37. (Sat Nav TA11 7DP)
From the Midlands: Preferably M40 and A34 to A303 and A37. (Sat Nav TA11 7DP)
From the North West: M6, M5 to A39 (Junction 23) then A361. (Sat Nav BA6 9XE)
From Wales: M4, M5 to A39 (as above) (Sat Nav BA6 9XE)
For more local traffic using the A37 North or A361 East (Sat Nav BA4 4LY)

BUS

There are multiple bus routes to Glastonbury.

2022 Bus from Bristol

Service 376

Take the 376 bus from Bristol Temple Meads to Glastonbury and connect into the festival bus services from Glastonbury (GF1 Wed to Mon).

2022 Bus from Bath

Service 174

Take the 174 bus from Bath Bus Station to Shepton Mallet and connect into the festival bus services from there (GF2 Wed to Mon).

2022 Bus from Castle Cary train station

There’s a free shuttle bus for festival-goers running between Castle Cary Station and the Festival Bus Station throughout. The bus station is next to Pedestrian Gate A. The shuttle operates from Wednesday to Monday (there is no service during the night when trains aren’t running).

2022 Glastonbury Town shuttle bus

Service GF1

Fare £4 (single)

From 12pm each day this calls at West Pennard bus stop, 10 minutes after departing from Glastonbury Town Hall.

2022 Wells, Shepton Mallet, Cannard’s Grave Bus Service

Service GF2

Wells via Shepton Mallet Town Centre (Cenotaph) and Cannards Grave.

Fare (single) Wells: £4, Shepton Mallet £3, Cannards Grave £3.

2022 Festival Bus Station – Bristol Temple Meads (Sunday & Monday only)

Service GF3

Fare £22 single

2022 Castle Cary Station – Worthy View Campsite Shuttle Service

Service GF4

Shuttle between Castle Cary Station and Worthy View. This is a free service for guests staying at Worthy View. This service will operate on Wednesday & Thursday, Sunday & Monday to connect to and from rail services.

2022 Festival Bus Station – Worthy View Campsite Shuttle Service

Service GF5

Shuttle between Festival Bus Station and Worthy View. This is a free service for guests staying at Worthy View. The service operates from Wednesday to Monday.

2022 North Wootton Bus Service

Service GF6

Fare: £4 (single)

COACH

National Express will be running coach services to Glastonbury from more than 70 locations. To organise a coach trip, call 08717 818181.

BIKES

The festival site is just a few miles south of Route 3 of the National Cycle Network, which runs between Glastonbury and Wells. For route planning advice, check out Cycle Streets’ Glastonbury Route Planner.

AIR

And don’t forget there’s always air travel.

The closest international airport to Glastonbury Festival is Bristol International Airport. From there, you can catch a National Express coach, though this must be booked in advance.

Or you can get to Glastonbury by helicopter. For more details, visit www.flyglastonbury.com.

Source: Glastonbury Festival

One Labour MP told MailOnline that senior party figures needed to stay out of the row over strikes – and Ms Nandy wading in would not help them in the polls.

‘It’s for the government to fix it but if you are a trade union official, do you really want politicians on the picket lines? It’s really an issue for negotiation’, the MP said, adding: ‘When I saw what the train drivers are earning, I’m thinking of retraining’.

Union barons stand accused of ‘holding the country to ransom’ having vowed to work together to ensure the disruption they cause in the coming weeks and months ‘will be unparalleled’ and timed to cause the ‘maximum possible disruption’ to Britons as they push for 10%-plus pay rises.

More than 50,000 members of the hard-left Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) working for London Underground and 13 rail operators will down tools on June 21, 23 and 25 – the largest walkouts since 1989. The strike is pencilled in for three days – but the disruption will last for at least six days.

Amid problems across the Tube this morning, Unite has said 1,000 of its members would also strike on the Tube on June 21, which will see most of the network shut down and millions of Londoners struggling to commute or forced to work from home.

Britons suffered a ‘half term from hell’ last week after major disruption at airports due to shortages of staff. Today it emerged that baggage handlers, check-in staff and ground staff at Heathrow and Stansted could choose to strike over pay and conditions this summer.

And more than 150,000 union members working for key services such as the Royal Mail and BT could choose to strike within the next week, all over pay.

Manuel Cortes, general secretary of the TSSA union, said: ‘The disruption will be unparalleled. I don’t think we will have seen anything like it since the 1926 General Strike. That’s the last time the three unions came out together. And we will coordinate our action. It’ll be a summer of discontent no doubt. If it comes to it, I’ll have a strategy in place that causes the maximum possible disruption.’

But Karl McCartney, Tory MP for Lincoln, told the Telegraph that unions are ‘holding the country to ransom’ and their left-wing bosses are ‘harking back to an age when they had a purpose and a reason to be hard-nosed and rough and ready with their pugnaciousness. But those days are long-gone’.

The Government has been slammed for failing to keep its manifesto pledge and bring in legislation that will ensure a minimum train service of around 30% during strikes, which is already mandatory in France and Spain.

Commuters will be encouraged to work from home during the train strikes as contingency plans may involve complete overnight shutdowns – as the biggest rail strikes for more than 30 years are planned for June.

Mick Lynch, who enjoys £125,000-a-year in pay and benefits as chief of the hard-left Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), dismissed public anger on Wednesday over plans for 50,000 rail workers across the country to strike on June 21, 23 and 25 – the largest walkouts since 1989 – warning that more strikes would follow if a row over pay and job cuts was not resolved.

Ministers and Network Rail are now putting contingency plans in place which would see freight trains prioritised over passenger services to prevent blackouts in some areas and ensure supermarket shelves and petrol forecourts remain stocked.

Multiple-day strikes could lead to lights going out in places due to freight services to power stations being hit, ministers have been told.

Although a blanket ban will not be issued by train operators, passengers will be advised to ‘not travel unless it is absolutely necessary’ despite three in four adults in Britain now travelling to work at some point during the week – up from two-thirds a month ago.

The strike is another blow to travellers who are already facing a summer of chaos at airports due to staff shortages.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson led the calls to get people back into the office following the Covid pandemic, having claimed recently that working from home is not working.

Mr Johnson told the Daily Mail: ‘My experience of working from home is you spend an awful lot of time making another cup of coffee and then, you know, getting up, walking very slowly to the fridge, hacking off a small piece of cheese, then walking very slowly back to your laptop and then forgetting what it was you’re doing.’

The contingency plans include a total shutdown of passenger rail travel before 7.30 am or after 6.30 pm during the three days of industrial action, planned for the 21, 23 and 25 June.

However, the network is likely to be a slimline basic service affected from June 21 to 26 – with priority given to freight services, reports The Times.

A senior rail source told the newspaper: ‘We are managing people’s expectations down very firmly. Services will be extremely limited and we’ll need to massively reduce hours of operation while keeping freight moving.’

Meanwhile, union barons were accused of a ‘strike first, negotiate second’ approach on Tuesday after ordering crippling walkouts despite being offered a pay increase for their members.

Network Rail negotiators offered the hard-Left RMT a pay rise of at least 2 per cent, it can be revealed.

The offer is not far off the 3 per cent pay rise ministers last year gave to NHS staff who were on the front line of the battle against Covid.

Negotiators said RMT workers could get an even bigger increase if the union agreed to start discussions on modernising work practices.

But rather than continue talks, on Tuesday the union’s bosses ordered tens of thousands of members to strike on June 21, 23 and 25.

Ministers and Network Rail are putting contingency plans in place which would see freight trains prioritised over passenger services to prevent blackouts in some areas and ensure supermarket shelves and petrol forecourts remain stocked.

Multiple-day strikes could lead to lights going out in places due to freight services to power stations being hit, ministers have been told.

The strikes have left Britons furious as it will effect a series of upcoming events this summer, including the Glastonbury Festival between June 22 and June 26. That week will also see England play New Zealand in a Test match in Leeds, the British Athletics Championships in Manchester, and gigs in London’s Hyde Park by Sir Elton John (June 24) and The Rolling Stones (June 25).

There will also be a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in London on June 24 and 25 and it is Armed Forces Day on June 25.

National Rail has been forced to suspend the sales of advance tickets for the strike days until emergency timetables have been finalised – meaning the UK’s railway network, already handed £16billion of taxpayers’ money to keep it going in the pandemic, is being starved of more funds.

And South Western Railway, which runs services to some of Britain’s busiest stations including Waterloo and Clapham Junction, today laid bare the impact the strike will have on the 1.6million passengers that use their trains each day.

Furious concert-goers are now rightly asking ‘how the f**k do we get to Glastonbury’ as they lashed out at Lynch on Twitter over his ‘chaotic’ and ‘nonsense’ plot. But it is not clear what those close to Lynch make of the walkouts – such as his daughter Connie, who partied at Reading Festival in 2019.

One reveller tweeted: ‘Rail strike on June 25 when I’m darting from London to Sheffield to Bristol to Glastonbury is a nightmare… what the hell?!’. Another said: ‘Train strikes at the end of the month to affect people going to Glastonbury. I’ve come back to absolute chaos and nonsense’. A third posted: ‘Union scumbags now called rail strike over Glastonbury weekend’.

One reveller raged: ‘Ouch @GWRhelp @networkrailwest train strike during @glastonbury that’s not going to end well for anyone #railstrike’. Another called the train strike ‘crazy’, while one person said they would cancel their trip: ‘Can’t go now. No trains not risking it’.

And seeming to sum up the mood of the nation, one person tweeted: ‘Feeling sad after all that is going on in the world that the rail unions want to spoil Glastonbury for people looking forward to it for three years – by stopping trains – we need more joy in the UK, not strikes’.

Commuters could be told to work from home during the train strikes as contingency plans may involve complete overnight shutdowns – as the biggest rail strikes for more than 30 years are planned for June

Furious concert-goers have lashed out at Lynch on Twitter over his ‘chaotic’ and ‘nonsense’ walkouts

Union boss Mick Lynch was pictured enjoying his journey on the new Elizabeth Line after his RMT union voted to strike across much of the capital’s underground network on Monday, causing widespread chaos in London with most zone 1 stations closed

Lynch said: ‘Railway workers have been treated appallingly and, despite our best efforts in negotiations, the rail industry, with the support of the Government, has failed to take their concerns seriously.

Which train operators will be affected?

Union members from National Rail and 13 different operators have voted to carry out strike action this month.

Those operators are:

Avanti West Coast
c2c
Chiltern Railways
CrossCountry
East Midlands Railway
Greater Anglia
GWR
LNER
Northern
Southeastern
South Western Railway
TransPennine Express
West Midlands Trains (including London Northwestern Railway)

‘We have a cost-of-living crisis, and it is unacceptable for railway workers to either lose their jobs or face another year of a pay freeze when inflation is at 11.1% and rising.

‘Our union will now embark on a sustained campaign of industrial action which will shut down the railway system.’

However, Rail Delivery Group chairman Steve Montgomery called the strikes ‘needless and damaging’, and Health Secretary Sajid Javid said union leaders should ‘act like adults’ and come to a ‘sensible solution’ to disputes in the industry.

Mr Javid told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘When it comes to these strikes, it is very disappointing what the unions have said, because it’s not just going to cause misery for the travellers, but it’s actually, I think, the wrong outcome for the workers as well.

‘Because anyone working in this industry, any industry for that matter, you want it to be sustainable for the long term. It’s not possible to keep giving it the same level of support it got during the pandemic.’

Put to him that the Government could legislate to ward off the strikes, he said: ‘There are of course options for the Government. And I know that my colleague, the Secretary of State for Transport, will be looking at all options.

‘But the most important thing right now would be for the union leaders to get around the table with the industry leaders and just basically act like adults and just to come to a sensible solution.’

Network Rail chief executive Andrew Haines said the organisation is ‘doing everything we can’ to avoid the strike action.

‘There are two weeks until the first strike is planned. We will use this time to keep talking to our unions and, through compromise and common sense on both sides, we hope to find a solution and avoid the damage that strike action would cause all involved,’ he said.

Labour’s Lisa Nandy caused chaos in the party today after she said they are ‘on the side’ of workers joining June’s crippling rail strikes and praised the unions for helping ‘really struggling’ staff including drivers who earn up to £70,000-a-year.

Shadow levelling up secretary Ms Nandy has broken ranks with Labour’s leadership including Sir Keir Starmer, who has dodged the issue so far. Several backbench MPs said they backed the RMT ‘100 per cent’ with Corbynista Richard Burgon demanding ‘more mass protests, demonstrations and strikes’.

Speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she said: ‘We want to avoid the strikes and we’re on the public’s side on this. We’re also on the rail workers’ side. They’re dealing with the same pressures that everyone else is – the cost of food, the cost of soaring inflation rates, taxes going up, and they’re really struggling to make ends meet.

‘They’re the people that we went out and applauded during the pandemic because they kept our services going and they’ve seen their pay in real terms attacked again and again over the last decade’.

But the row has also sparked red-on-red attacks from members who said Labour cannot support large-scale industrial action and win a general election. John Spellar, Labour MP for Warley, said of the 1980s: ‘The lesson from those years is that all the demos, protests and strikes didn’t get rid of a Tory Government – only a General Election win by an electable Labour Party’.

One Labour MP told MailOnline that senior party figures needed to stay out of the row over strikes – and Ms Nandy wading in would not help them in the polls.

As Britain faces a summer of pain, Unions warned their strikes could soon be widened beyond public transport, to include:

Unite and GMB union members are balloting check-in staff and ground staff based at Heathrow while baggage handlers at Stansted could also strike after rejecting a four per cent pay increase;
115,000 members of the Communication Workers Union working for Royal Mail will be balloted for industrial action on June 15;
On the same day 40,000 BT workers from the same union will also asked if they want to walk out in what would be the first national strike at the former state-owned firm since the 1980s;
And this Autumn 1.4 million local government workers, in schools and councils, could also strike if they do not get a £2,000 pay rise in a 11.1% pay deal set to be submitted by Friday;

Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer meets President Michael D Higgins in Dublin today amid party infighting over strikes

Labour MPs have also come out in favour of the strikes planned for the end of June

In a picture of things to come, there were major delays across the Tube this morning. The network will be shut down by strikes

Mick Lynch (pictured), who enjoys £125,000-a-year in pay and benefits as chief of the hard-left Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT), dismissed public anger on Wednesday over plans for 50,000 rail workers across the country to strike on June 21, 23 and 25 – the largest walkouts since 1989

His package is reportedly more than £124,000-a-year and he lived in a terraced house in Ealing (pictured) worth approaching £1million. He paid £394,000 for it in 2008.

Lynch has said he ‘will not rest’ until a ‘just’ agreement is reached in the latest strikes.

In March, Lynch organised the worst Tube strikes in five years – with two days of walkouts against changes to jobs, pensions and working conditions.

He left school at 16 and trained as an electrician but was blacklisted due to union activity, so joined the railways.

Planes, no trains, and automobiles: How to get to Glastonbury during June’s rail strikes

The mass walkouts are set to take place on June 21, 23 and 25 – all while the Glastonbury Festival takes place.

So are you going to Glastonbury? And are you wondering how you can still get there? Here are some tips.

DRIVE

The trains may be down, but you can still drive to the festival.

From south London: M3 then A303 and A37. (Sat Nav TA11 7DP).
From Swindon: M4 then A350 onto the A361. (Sat Nav BA4 4LY).
From the North East: A1 or M1, M25 to M3 (Junction 12), then A303 and A37. (Sat Nav TA11 7DP)
From the Midlands: Preferably M40 and A34 to A303 and A37. (Sat Nav TA11 7DP)
From the North West: M6, M5 to A39 (Junction 23) then A361. (Sat Nav BA6 9XE)
From Wales: M4, M5 to A39 (as above) (Sat Nav BA6 9XE)
For more local traffic using the A37 North or A361 East (Sat Nav BA4 4LY)