28 July 2023 , 21:30
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Tory Transport Secretary Mark Harper has been told to "get back to work" after failing to meet rail unions at all this year - in spite of strikes piling misery on passengers this weekend.
The frontbencher is accused of failing to do his job despite the threat of a summer of walkouts in a dispute that has been going on for more than a year.
Louise Haigh, Labour’s Shadow Transport Secretary, has written to Mr Harper, telling him to talk to the RMT and ASLEF - who he's not met since November and December respectively.
Ms Haigh fumed: “The fact that Mark Harper has refused to do his job whilst the British public have faced over a year of rail chaos is unacceptable. The very least we should expect from the Transport Secretary is to sit down with the unions and rail operators, to try and reach an agreement to end these strikes for good.
"The fact he has failed to do even that means we can safely add the Transport Secretary to the list of things that do not work in Britain anymore.”
Teachers, civil servants and train drivers walk out in biggest strike in decade
Official meeting logs show the last meeting Mr Harper held with the RMT was in November, and ASLEF in December. It means he has only met with both major rail unions once since being appointed in October last year.
Labour's Louise Haigh has called on Mr Harper to 'get back to work' (Julian Hamilton/Daily Mirror)Rail strikes have been going on since June 2022, and have seen dozens of walkouts, with more likely in the coming months.
England's situation stands in contrast to Wales, Labour says, where publicly owned Transport for Wales agreed a pay deal to end strikes in December.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said striking rail workers are still waiting for an invitation back to the negotiating table.
He said: "We've been on strike for over a year. This campaign's probably been running for two years.
"The issues are the same. They're attacking our jobs. They're making redundancies. They're closing services."
Mr Lynch continued: "There is not an agreement in sight at the moment but we remain available for negotiation with the companies and with the Government - but that's up to them to invite us back to the table so that we can work up some solutions to the dispute."
A Department for Transport spokesperson said: "The Government has met the rail unions, listened to them and facilitated improved offers on pay and reform.
"The union leaders should put these fair and reasonable offers to their members so this dispute can be resolved."
A source close to the Transport Secretary told The Mirror: "Since Mark Harper and Huw Merriman arrived at DfT last October, all the smaller unions have had their disputes resolved and we’ve completely resolved the dispute on Network Rail. This didn’t happen by accident, this happened because Mark and Huw met Mr Lynch and Mr Whelan on a number of occasions and facilitated them fair and reasonable offers on pay and reform.
Rail strikes to continue as RMT union members reject 'dreadful' pay offer
"Lynch’s exec allowed RMT members at Network Rail to vote on their offer and they 'overwhelmingly' accepted it, yet he refuses to allow the offer to his members at train operators go forward to a vote.
"So while RMT members at Network Rail have had a good pay rise and gone back to work, those RMT members at train operators are being blocked by their union bosses from having a say on an offer comparable to one that their fellow RMT members at Network Rail thought was fair enough to overwhelmingly accept."
And the source added: "Louise gently needs reminding how this all works: Ministers facilitate offers, employers negotiate - which is exactly what has happened. We all saw Labour get new donations from RMT and ASLEF recently, it’s clear all they are is puppets for their union paymasters."
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