Rail engineers to stage series of 48-hour strikes in March over pay, RMT says

theguardian.com:

Railway engineering workers are to stage a series of 48-hour strikes in a dispute over pay, the RMT union has said.

More than 100 workers at the infrastructure company Balfour Beatty will walk out from 3-5 March, 10-12 March and 17-19 March, after rejecting a 5.5% pay offer.

The RMT general secretary, Mick Lynch, said: “These highly skilled workers have had enough of not being offered a decent wage rise.

“The cost of living crisis has affected all workers and our members are not prepared to pay the price while the company enjoys huge revenues. Balfour Beatty is a highly profitable company and they need to use some of their excess wealth to reward their workers properly.”

The latest strike dates come two days afterthe RMT announced further national rail strikes in March and April.

The union’s 40,000 members across Network Rail and 14 train operators will strike on 16 March. Train staff will stop work for three further days, on 18 and 30 March and 1 April.

The RMT’s Network Rail members will also start an overtime ban lasting a total of six weeks in maintenance and operations, which the union warned would prove disruptive to the railway.

Responding to the latest round of national strike dates, the transport secretary, Mark Harper, said: “Just days after denying its members a say on their own future, the RMT leadership is now trying to make them lose multiple days’ wages through yet more strikes.

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“Our railways are not currently financially sustainable and these best and final offers would have given workers what they want and, crucially, the passengers what they need.”