![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/16\/09\/77869895-12756291-image-a-15_1700126049068.jpg\")
<\/p>\nBritain is to face more rail misery in the run-up to Christmas after train drivers announced a fresh series of strikes next month.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
The Aslef union said the new walkouts will ‘ratchet up the pressure’ on train companies and the Government to give train drivers their first pay rise in more than four years.<\/p>\n
Workers are to stage a series of one-day strikes and a nine-day ban on overtime in December as part of their long-running pay row, in a hammer blow for commuters.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In a fresh threat to Whitehall, Aslef union baron\u00a0Mick Whelan warned members were ‘determined’ to get a pay rise, as he accused Transport Secretary\u00a0Mark Harper\u00a0of being ‘missing in action’.<\/p>\n
But a spokesman for the\u00a0Rail Delivery Group branded the latest walking ‘wholly unnecessary’ and warned it ‘will sadly disrupt\u00a0customers and businesses ahead of the vital festive period’.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Unions are to stage a series of one-day strikes and a nine-day ban on overtime in December as part of their long-running pay row (file image)\u00a0<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/16\/09\/77869785-12756291-image-m-6_1700125872901.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan\u00a0warned members were ‘determined’ to get a pay rise (file image)<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/16\/09\/77869879-12756291-image-a-16_1700126054731.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The Aslef union said the new walkouts will ‘ratchet up the pressure’ on train companies and the Government (file image)<\/p>\n
The latest wave of industrial action will see union\u00a0members walk out at EMR and LNER on December 2; at Avanti West Coast, Chiltern, Great Northern Thameslink, and WMT on December 3; at C2C and Greater Anglia on December 5; at Southeastern, Southern\/Gatwick Express, the SWR main line and depot, and on the Island Line on December 6; at CrossCountry and GWR on December 7; and at Northern and TPT on December 8.<\/p>\n
All Aslef members will refuse to work any overtime from Friday December 1 to Saturday December 9, in a move expected to cause further misery for Christmas shoppers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aslef said it had previously called all its members out on strike on the same day but by spreading the action, the ramifications for the rail industry will be ‘greater’.<\/p>\n
‘We are determined to win this dispute and get a significant pay rise for train drivers who have not had an increase since 2019, while the cost of living, in that time, has soared,’ Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said.<\/p>\n
‘The Transport Secretary, who has gone missing in action during this dispute, says we should put the offer to our members.<\/p>\n
‘What the minister apparently fails to understand is that, since the Rail Delivery Group’s (RDG) risible offer in April, we have received overwhelming mandates, on enormous turnouts, for more industrial action.<\/p>\n
‘Our members have spoken and we know what they think. Every time they vote \u2013 and they have voted overwhelmingly \u2013 for strike action in pursuit of a proper pay rise it is a clear rejection of the offer that was made in April.<\/p>\n
‘The RDG’s offer \u2013 a land grab for all our terms and conditions \u2013 was made in the full knowledge that it couldn’t \u2013 and wouldn’t \u2013 be accepted.’<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/16\/09\/77870023-12756291-image-a-18_1700126107426.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
All Aslef members will refuse to work any overtime from Friday December 1 to Saturday December 9 (pictured is a previous board warning commuters of strikes in July)<\/p>\n
![](\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/11\/16\/09\/77869869-12756291-image-a-17_1700126061086.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Commuters are pictured getting off a train as Waterloo station in London\u00a0<\/p>\n
Aslef said it had successfully struck pay deals with 14 companies in the last 12 months, including freight firms, open-access operators, Eurostar, and passenger companies in Scotland and Wales where transport issues are devolved.<\/p>\n
‘We have been unable to do a deal with the 16 train operating companies (TOCs) in England controlled by the Government.\u00a0<\/p>\n
‘This is a dispute in England made at Westminster by the Tory Government.<\/p>\n
‘We gave the TOCs a way out of this dispute which they chose not to accept because the Government interfered.<\/p>\n
‘We suggested a significant across-the-board increase for all drivers, at all the companies involved, to deal with the cost-of-living crisis.<\/p>\n
‘Other matters, we said, could then be dealt with company by company because terms and conditions are different at each company.<\/p>\n
‘Uncoupling the carriages, as it were, would have given the TOCs and the Government a way out, and given us an opportunity to deal, at company council level, with any changes and productivity they want.<\/p>\n
‘Some TOCs have Sundays in the working week, some don’t. One size does not \u2013 cannot and will not \u2013 fit all.<\/p>\n
‘We will continue to take industrial action until the train companies \u2013 and\/or the Government \u2013 sits down and negotiates with us in good faith.’<\/p>\n
Aslef has held 14 one-day strikes during the 18-month dispute, causing huge disruption to services across the country.<\/p>\n
Strikes have also been held since June 2022 by members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, who are now voting on a deal aimed at resolving their dispute.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for the Rail Delivery Group said: ‘This wholly unnecessary strike action called by the Aslef leadership will sadly disrupt customers and businesses ahead of the vital festive period, while further damaging the railway at a time when it is still getting an extra is \u00a3175million a month in taxpayer cash.<\/p>\n
‘The fair and affordable offer made by industry, which would take average driver base salaries for a four-day week from \u00a360,000 to nearly \u00a365,000, remains on the table.<\/p>\n
‘We urge the Aslef leadership to put it to its members, give Christmas back to our passengers, and end this damaging industrial dispute.’<\/p>\n
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: ‘It is disappointing that Aslef are targeting the public and hospitality businesses at the beginning of the festive period when there is a fair and reasonable pay offer for train drivers on the table that would take their salary up to an average of \u00a365,000 for a 35-hour, four-day week.<\/p>\n
‘Taxpayers contributed \u00a31,000 per household to protect train drivers’ jobs during the pandemic. Instead of going on strike, Aslef should be following in the footsteps of the other rail unions and giving their members a vote on this fair pay deal.’<\/p>\n