1 year ago
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Key events
Optimism as RMT members suspend strike action at Network Rail
Good morning.
Hopes are growing of a breakthrough in Great Britain’s long-running rail dispute after the RMT union surprisingly called off all industrial action on Network Rail after receiving a new pay offer.
Last night, the RMT union cancelled a planned strike at Network Rail set for 16 March. The new offer will now be put to members in a vote.
An RMT spokesperson said last night that:
“The RMT national executive committee has taken the decision to suspend all industrial action on Network Rail following receipt of a new offer from the employer.
“Further updates will be given on all aspects of the national rail dispute in the coming days.”
Our transport correspondent Gwyn Topham reports that it is understood that the total headline pay increase has not changed, but some amendments have been made to the previous offer that totalled 9% over two years.
That previous offer had been rejected by the union’s national executive committee.
This doesn’t mean that the rail industrial dispute, which began last spring, is over.
As things stand, RMT members at 14 train operating companies are still set to take industrial action on 16 March but the effect on many services will be far smaller than from a combined strike with Network Rail. Further strikes at these train operating companies are also planned for 18 and 30th of March, and 1 April.
Hilary Ingham, senior lecturer at the Department of Economics at Lancaster University, says that that last night’s revised pay offer came ‘out of the blue’.
Ingham told Radio 5’s Wake up To Money:
It doesn’t mean that all future strike action has been called off.
So, it’s not actually over. But it does look like this might be the beginning of the end.
The breakthrough has been welcomed by Network Rail. Its chief executive, Andrew Haines, said:
“We are relieved for our people, passengers and freight customers that industrial action in Network Rail has now been suspended. We look forward to further information on plans for a referendum.”
Hopes are also growing of a breakthrough in the NHS industrial dispute this week, as talks between ministers and the NHS staff council begin today.
The Daily Mirror reports that there is optimism ministers can come up with a pay offer that unions are happy to take back to members by the end of three days of planned negotiations this week.
More here: NHS nursing pay deal ‘in sight’ with ministers ‘optimistic’ as talks begin with unions
Also coming up today
It’s International Women’s Day, which has prompted a warning that two-thirds of women with childcare responsibilities believe they have missed out on career progression as a direct result.
The warning, from business leaders at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), comes amid growing pressure on the government to boost support for parents.
The mood in the stock markets is nervous, after the chair of the US Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, warned the Fed is prepared to return to bigger interest rate rises and has “has a long way to go” in its fight against inflation.
The agenda
10am GMT: Latest estimate of eurozone growth in Q4 2022
Noon GMT: US weekly mortgage approvals
1.15pm GMT: ADP’s report of US private payrolls for February
3pm GMT: Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell testifies to House Financial Services Committee
3pm GMT: JOLTS survey of US job vacancies
English (US)