There will be major disruption in Britain's train services in June and July as drivers are planning to join thousands of other rail workers on strike. Aslef, Britain's trade union for train drivers, announced strikes at three companies over pay.
It comes after the RMT Union, which represents guards and other railway staff, said 40,000 workers from Network Rail and 13 train firms would walkout. The separate strikes are expected to cause severe disruption across the UK.
Train drivers of ASLEF will hold their own strike over pay on 26 June at Hull Trains, at Greater Anglia on 23 June, and on Croydon Tramlink on 28, 29 June and 13 and 14 July.
Meanwhile, RMT workers will take their industrial action on 21, 23 and 25 June after talks over pay and redundancies fell through. Mick Whelan, general secretary of Aslef, said its members were not given a pay rise since 2019 and the union wanted drivers to get a pay rise "in line with the cost of living, so that we are not, in real terms, worse off".
"We are not naive. The train companies are doing very well with handsome profits, dividends for shareholders, and big salaries for managers - and we are not going to work longer, for less," he said.
The various planned strikes coincide with several large events, ranging from Glastonbury Festival, which runs from 22 to 26 June, to a cricket Test match between England and New Zealand taking place from 23 to 27 June. The industrial action has been described as the "biggest rail strike in modern history".
