Passengers travelling between London and Edinburgh face months of disruption after LNER drivers announced 22 days of strike action from the start of September to early November.
The train drivers’ union Aslef said its members working for LNER would take strike action every weekend between just after midnight on 1 September and 10 November after what it called a complete “breakdown in industrial relations, bullying by management, and persistent breaking of agreements by the company”.
The action will cause widespread disruption to passenger services on the east coast mainline, which is also the key route between London and cities including Leeds, York and Newcastle.
Meanwhile, hundreds of passport control staff at Heathrow confirmed they would strike over a four-day period from 31 August in a dispute about working conditions.
The rail union has emphasised that this strike action is unrelated to its long-running national dispute involving 16 train companies, which could soon be resolved if its members accept a new pay deal agreed between the government and Aslef bosses earlier this week.
It will cause a headache for the new Labour government, however, because the east coast line has been run by the Department for Transport (DfT) as an operator of last resort under the LNER brand since May 2018. The government took it over after Virgin Trains East Coast, 90% owned by Stagecoach, ended its loss-making contract.
The fresh strikes are a blow to government hopes that the deal being put to Aslef members in their dispute with 16 English train operating companies would draw a line under more than two years of disruption on the railways. Train drivers are being offered a pay rise of nearly 15% over three years, all backdated and pensionable, without any changes to terms and conditions.
The fact they are taking place on a state-run service could also undermine the DfT’s wider push to renationalise the railways by bringing franchises into public hands when the current private operators’ contracts come to an end, or earlier if lawyers advise of potential grounds for breach of contract.
The news came as the Public and Commercial Services union announced that 650 of its Border Force members working in passport control at Heathrow terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5 would strike between 31 August and 3 September, and would then work to rule, with no overtime, until 22 September.
The Conservative party leadership hopeful James Cleverly said the Aslef announcement showed the government had been “played by its union paymaster” and would be devastating for families.
The train drivers’ union has committed to 22 days of action, with each strike starting just after midnight on Saturday and ending just before midnight on Sunday.
Mick Whelan, Aslef general secretary, said: “The continued failure of the company to resolve longstanding industrial relations issues has forced us into this position. We would much rather not be here. But the company has brutally, and repeatedly, broken diagramming and roster agreements, failed to adhere to the agreed bargaining machinery, and totally acted in bad faith.”
The union has said the action is the culmination of a near two-year dispute that includes concerns over drivers being asked to work outside rostering agreements and putting managers in driver roles on strike days.
Aslef claimed managers were given £500 a shift to cover workers on rest days, and £175 if action took place during a normal working day.
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Nigel Roebuck, Aslef’s lead on negotiations with LNER, said: ‘The bottom line is that LNER does not employ enough drivers to deliver the services it has promised passengers … it has always relied on favours and goodwill and, when that evaporated, they started to try to bully our members, and then to break our agreements.”
The union called on LNER to sit down for talks, and said the train operator could stop the strikes by “behaving properly, decently, and abiding by the agreements they made”.
LNER is one of four operators in England being run by a state-owned operator of last resort. The others are Northern Trains, TransPennine Trains and Southeastern.
The latest figures from the Office of Rail and Road found LNER was the fifth worst-performing operator in terms of reliability, with only 57.3% of its trains arriving on time between January and March this year.
LNER said: “Our priority focus will be on minimising disruption to customers during the forthcoming Aslef strikes, which sadly will continue to cause disruption and delays. We are surprised and disappointed to hear this news following recent constructive conversations. We will continue to work with Aslef to find a way to end this long-running dispute, which only damages the rail industry.”
A DfT spokesperson said: “This is extremely disappointing for passengers. The transport secretary has called on both Aslef and LNER to get around the table and work in good faith to resolve this dispute as quickly as possible.”
Meanwhile, the Public and Commercial Services union confirmed that 650 of its Border Force members working in passport control at Heathrow terminals 2, 3, 4 and 5 would strike between 31 August and 3 September, and would then work to rule, with no overtime, until 22 September.
The long-running dispute revolves around enforced changes to working conditions, including the introduction of flexible work rosters. PCS members took seven days of strike action in April, May and June.