In an interview with the Financial Times, Mick Lynch, general secretary of the RMT rail union, warned that the strikes next week would be followed by further action throughout the year, unless an agreement is reached. “Until there is a settlement, there will be a strike campaign and other unions will join us. . . “I expect more strikes,” Leeds said. “We will renew the orders until we reach a settlement of the problems in the conflict,” he added. On Tuesday, 40,000 members of the Railway Network staff at 13 railways will go on strike over wage disputes and layoffs, which are expected to cause major disruptions to transport. Leeds said the rail strike could be called off within the next 48 hours if train companies accepted their job losses, pay and working conditions. “We are threatening jobs. “We want a guarantee for non-compulsory redundancies,” he told LBC. But Transport Secretary Grant Shapps accused RMT of “firing” on strikes that would “punish millions of innocent people, instead of calmly discussing the sensible and necessary reforms we need to make to protect our rail network”. He said RMT “jumped the gun”, adding that it “seems determined to strike” instead of focusing on negotiations. The RMT said the wage increases discussed – just 2 per cent – were insufficient as inflation is projected to reach 11 per cent this year. Union members voted in favor of a six-month strike in May, leaving room for further strikes in the summer and autumn. The Institute for Fiscal Studies said Sunday that the government had done enough to help low-wage workers as inflation soared, even though RMT’s demands for increases were “understandable”. “If everyone does that [agreeing to significant pay rises]”This means that inflation will be integrated into the economy, so we would all be better off if we all made low wage increases,” IFS Director Paul Johnson told Times Radio.

He added that the government has spent a “huge amount of money” this year to support the standard of living of the people. “They [rail workers] “In fact, we do not need to have a fully inflation-protected wage increase this year, because, especially for middle-income people, the level of government support is really, with the exception of Covid, almost unprecedented.” The opposition Labor Party has called on the government to hold final talks with the unions to prevent a strike. In a letter to Saps sent on Sunday, Shadow Transport Minister Louise Hay wrote: “The only way to resolve this is to stop your government from boycotting the talks and going around the table.” Lisa Nadi, the shadow secretary of the Labor Party, said the government had failed to work properly with the unions. “None of us wants the strikes to continue,” he told the BBC. Kwasi Kwarteng, secretary of operations, accused the unions of “bribing” workers on strike, citing an increase in Unison’s daily strike payments from £ 25 a day to £ 50 a day from the first day of the strike. instead of the fourth day. The strikes will take place on June 21, 23 and 25 with Network Rail warning that the unrest is expected to last all the days between the action. All major UK railways are expected to be disrupted, including the London Underground, LNER, the West Coast Avanti and several suburban railways.