HOPES of a prosperous – and uninterrupted – Christmas hospitality season have been dashed by the prospect of fresh strike action by rail workers.
Rail union RMT has announced a series of 48 hour strikes by 40,000 of its members, after talks with industry employers failed to yield an improved offer on jobs, pay and conditions.
The strike action is planned for 13, 14, 16 and 17 December, and on January 3, 4, 6 and 7.There will also be an overtime ban from 18 December until 2 January.
However, although the strikes are likely to utterly paralyse services in England, the RMT action only affects signalling staff north of the border, rather than drivers, so ScotRail should be able to maintain a skeleton service on key routes over those dates.
But that will still come as cold comfort for hospitality operators, who want nothing to stand in the way of customers getting out and about over the festive party season.
UKHospitality Chief Executive Kate Nicholls has written to UK Transport Secretary Mark Harper warning that the disruption will cost the hospitality sector £1.5 billion on strike days, similar to the level of disruption caused by the Omicron Covid-19 variant last year.
“The impact of rail strikes already this year has been devastating and wide-reaching, but this will pale in comparison to what we will see as a result of the upcoming strikes in December,” said Ms Nicholls.
“This disruption will devastate hospitality businesses during their busiest period of the year and will once again force the public to cancel and rearrange plans, just as they were preparing for an uninterrupted Christmas. Businesses have already seen mass cancellations which won’t be rescheduled, costing the sector billions in lost sales.
“The Christmas period is not just good for businesses, it’s the most lucrative time for workers where they can benefit from additional overtime and higher levels of tips due to excess demand,” she added.
“These strikes damage all parts of society and it’s now time that the government proactively brings all partners to the table to deliver a solution that protects the nation’s workers and hospitality customers this Christmas.”
ScotRail’s head of customer operations, Phil Campbell, said: “While this dispute does not involve ScotRail staff, it will have an impact on our ability to provide services as the RMT planned action will involve Network Rail staff in Scotland.
“We’re currently assessing the full impact of this planned strike action, and will update our customers as soon as possible.”
For its part, the RMT was unrepentant, saying that it had suspended previous strike action ‘in good faith’ to allow for more negotiations, but that those had failed, it claimed, because the UK Government was ‘directly interfering’ with the process.
RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said: “This latest round of strikes will show how important our members are to the running of this country and will send a clear message that we want a good deal on job security, pay and conditions for our people.
“Our message to the public is we are sorry to inconvenience you, but we urge you to direct your anger and frustration at the government and railway employers during this latest phase of action.”
