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Train firms have approached the drivers’ union to suggest talks to finish almost two years of rail strikes within the UK which have precipitated the worst disruption to passengers in a era.
The Rail Delivery Group, which represents prepare operators, this week wrote to the Aslef union to suggest casual discussions forward of the subsequent wave of commercial motion that is because of start on Tuesday.
The two sides haven’t held formal negotiations since Aslef rejected a pay and reform provide final April. Since then passengers have confronted common strikes which have precipitated sweeping disruption to the rail community.
The Rail Delivery Group instructed the Financial Times it had written to the Aslef management “to try and find areas of common ground that will allow us to move to formal negotiations”.
It added: “We want to see an end to this dispute.”
Aslef normal secretary Mick Whelan instructed the FT: “We will be responding to see where it takes us.”
He added: “Hopefully it will get round the table at some point. We are willing to go to the table [and] still want to have that engagement”.
Three transport unions started rail strikes in the summertime of 2022 in rows over pay rises and potential adjustments to working practices because the business seemed to chop prices in response to a fall in passenger numbers through the pandemic.
Aslef is the one union nonetheless in dispute. The different foremost transport unions, the RMT and TSSA, final yr agreed pay offers to finish their disputes with each prepare firms and Network Rail, the publicly owned infrastructure supervisor.
The information of potential talks possible comes too late to keep away from the subsequent spherical of Aslef strikes which begins on Tuesday. Drivers will start a sequence of three one-day walkouts in a bid to place stress on 16 prepare firms and the federal government for a major rise in wages.
The stoppages at English prepare firms will hit totally different prepare working firms on totally different days, with passengers warned to test earlier than they journey and no companies anticipated on many traces. Cross-border companies into Scotland and Wales may even be disrupted.
Whelan stated the waves of commercial motion since 2022 amounted to the “longest rail strike in history”. He warned that his members had been absolutely dedicated to extra walkouts if wanted.
“Our members don’t think we are going hard and fast enough,” he stated.
The union has demanded pay rises to assist its members address the impression of current excessive inflation. In April 2023. Aslef’s management rejected a suggestion of an 8 per cent rise over two years, tied to vital reforms of working practices.
The authorities, which controls the rail business’s funds, and prepare firms, has urged Aslef to rethink the provide and settle for modernisation as a part of a pay deal.