Grant Shapps demands 'dinosaur rail barons' agree deal to end strikes or face crackdown
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has warned the government could push through legislation to reform Britain's railways if striking workers do not agree to a new deal.
He told ITV News "dinosaur rail union barons" are refusing to accept the government's offer to end the strike action.
It comes after RMT union boss Mick Lynch warned strikes could go on 'indefinitely' as a fresh round of walk outs brings trains grinding to a halt once again.
A series of strikes involving rail, Tube and bus workers have hit services this week, sparking commuter chaos.
On Friday, striking workers, from the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) disrupted travel on the London Underground network over issues including jobs and pensions.
And the second rail strike of the week, planned for Saturday (20 August), is expected to impact weekend travel during the school summer holidays.
Grant Shapps tells ITV News reporter Shehab Khan the rail strikes must end.
Mr Shapps said: "First of all, I absolutely deplore these strikes. I'm absolutely on the side of the passenger.
"They're only happening because the rail union bosses refused to put an 8% pay deal to their members.
"With the one smaller union where it did go to their members, the TSSA, the members accepted with a 71% vote.
"So, that's all that needs to happen, I suspect, to get the whole thing settled. But I'm afraid these dinosaur rail union barons just don't want to see this resolved.
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"I'm calling on them today to put this to their membership and get this thing over with. The government of course has to take the overall view of what each sector of the economy, each public sector worker is paid.
"That is of course true and to give you an example the medium, the average salary of a rail worker is £44,000.
"For a train driver- and ASLEF who represent the train drivers are also on strike their - median is a nearly £60,000 salary.
"We've got to compare that with a nurse - £31,000 - or a care worker - £21,000. We've got to think about the pay of doctors, teachers, nurses, police and many others in the public sector.
"So, I think we're offering a very reasonable, given the circumstances, pay increase of 8% over two years.
"I think if it went to the members of the union they may well settle just as they have done at the TSSA.
"The union bosses, the union barons if you like, they are blocking this going to their membership and that is prolonging the strike.
"We won't put up with that forever and we're starting to move towards what's called section 188, where we impose these changes rather than waiting for the unions to accept them."
"We need the modernisation. We're going to impose those changes if we need to."
The Transport Secretary said he was "involved every single day" in efforts to resolve the issues with union bosses.
However, he added the government will impose changes if bosses refuse to put its deal "to their membership".
He said: "I mean when your viewers hear that the unions won't allow, for example, maintenance teams to walk for five minutes from Euston to King's Cross because the unions say 'these are in two different regions' you kind of understand the sort of thing that we're up against.
"We have to modernise our railway. We're living in the 21st Century. Unfortunately, some of the rules stretch back literally one of them to 1919. That's the rule about Sunday working and the world has changed a lot since then.
"So, we need the modernisation. We're going to impose those changes if we need to. It would be much preferable if the union bosses will actually put the offer that's on the table."
Speaking at a picket line in Acton, west London, during Friday's Tube strike RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said he is “very sorry” that people are being inconvenienced by the strikes, which are separate from the rail workers' actions.
However he defended the Tube workers' actions, adding that the union has to show it is “deadly serious” about the livelihoods of its members.
During Thursday's rail strike, he had warned the industrial action could go on "indefinitely."
Mr Lynch said the RMT union has calculated that, including the previous and forthcoming industrial action, over £120 million of taxpayers’ money had been used to “bail out” private train companies.
He said: “Using taxpayers’ money to satisfy the anti-union agenda of the Tory party and seek to break the trade unions is shameful and means the dispute will be prolonged indefinitely as the train companies don’t lose a penny as a result of the industrial action and therefore have no incentive to settle the disputes.
“Instead of waging an ideological war against rail workers, millions of voters would rather that the Government allow for a fair negotiated settlement.”
Meanwhile, Tory leadership hopeful, Liz Truss, told the Daily Express, if elected prime minister, she would "crackdown on the debilitating strikes that cripple the vital services that hard-working people rely on".
Plans drawn up by the Foreign Secretary include introducing minimum service levels on critical national infrastructure to keep trains, buses and other services running.
Within a month of taking office she would introduce new laws provided her leadership bid is victorious.
To make it harder for strike action to happen across all sectors Ms Truss would raise ballot thresholds.
A cooling off period would also be introduced so unions can no longer strike as many times as they like in the six month period after a ballot.
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