Labour to hold talks with Aslef over rail strikes next week

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Talks between the train drivers’ union Aslef and the Department for Transport (DfT) will take place next week as the new Labour government seeks a swift resolution to the long-running national pay dispute. Aslef’s general secretary, Mick Whelan, said he believed fresh talks “can and will get a deal”, more than two years on from the start of a series of strikes by drivers that have halted train services around the country. The early meeting comes after the government announced more protections for workers and early steps to ensure rail nationalisation in the king’s speech on Wednesday, with the first reading of passenger railway services legislation now due on Thursday. The transport secretary, Louise Haigh, met union leaders last week and promised “an era of grownup industrial relations”. Aslef’s team will hold initial talks directly with the DfT rather than through the representatives of train operators. Steve Montgomery, First Group’s rail director and the former chair of the Rail Delivery Group, who led previous talks for the industry, is no longer in the process. The meeting on Tuesday is expected to be led instead by Alex Hynes, the DfT’s director general of rail services. Whelan said: “We hope, with a new government in place, that we can have constructive talks to get a positive resolution that works for train drivers, who have not had an increase in salary for five years – since 2019 – and will help get our railway back on track. “Mark Harper, Huw Merriman and the Tory government put the brakes on any deal. Now, with a new secretary of state for transport in place, I hope and think we can, and will, get a deal done.” No talks or meetings with the previous government to resolve the dispute had been held since Aslef rejected a deal worth 8% over two years in early 2023, which also included a number of changes to working conditions. It is understood that the union’s leadership could recommend to members a similar increase on a no-strings basis, accepting that any pay rise is likely to still be well below the rates of inflation seen since 2019. The RMT union is no longer in dispute with train operators or Network Rail, although the union is still negotiating over 2024 rises. Its general secretary, Mick Lynch, said it would “actively engage with the government on the pay issues in our sectors which can be resolved quickly”.