THE General Secretary of the RMT Union has said his members “don’t want to be on strike” as they start another 24-hour strike over pay and conditions.
Speaking to GB News, Mick Lynch said: “At the moment, the Government needs to make a move.”
“They set the mandate for the train operating companies who we are supposed to negotiate with.
“But in reality, we’re negotiating through the train operating companies to the Government. So it’s up to the Government to come up with a formula where we can get on with some negotiating.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Anne Diamond and Stephen Dixon, he continued: “The companies yesterday invited us into talks next week. Hopefully we’ll set that up.
“And we go into those talks with an attitude and disposition to try and get an agreement, but there are some serious issues as most people know.
“We don’t want to be on strike, we’d rather much rather be earning a living and running the service for the people who need to use it. So hopefully, if we can get a different mindset next week, we can get some progress.”
He added: “A quarter of our station staff are going to be made redundant under the latest proposals to shut ticket officers and de-staff stations and then they’ve got more plans along similar lines for catering staff, engineering staff and train crews.
“Every one of our members in this dispute has got a job at risk, hasn’t had a pay rise for four years and is threatened with terms and conditions being chopped up and diluted.”
