On 21, 23 and 25 June and 27 July 2022, the Reading Trades Union Council stood shoulder to shoulder with the striking RMT workers on picket lines at Reading Station, Reading Maintenance Depot and Oxford Station. Their role as key workers, keeping the supermarkets stocked and getting medical staff to hospitals, has been forgotten by the government-owned employer, Network Rail. Ministers prefer denigration and insult over fairness and open dialogue to resolve the dispute with the railway workers.
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| RMT picket line at Reading Railway Station, 21 June |
While the retail price index stands at 12% - with the likelihood of further increases to come - Network Rail initially offered a 2% pay rise plus non-pensionable 0.5% lump sums in September and November, but only in exchange for 'efficiencies'. With the details of the company's 'Modernising Maintenance' revealed on 1 July, major staff reductions and new ways of working were proposed and so the pay dispute has been augmented by a fight by the trade unions to prevent compulsory redundancies.
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| RMT picket line outside Oxford Railway Station, 21 June |
In Reading, Neil Adams (Unite), John Gillman (Unite), Kevin Jackson (Unison), Colin Masters (RMT), Ali McNamara (NEU), Danny McNamara (Unite Community), John Oversby (UCU), James Parker (Unite Community) and Chris Reilly (RMT) represented RTUC on the picket, while in Oxford, John Partington (TSSA) and Suzanne Quainton (the RMT picket organiser) attended alongside representatives of Oxford & District Trades Union Council and other groups.
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| RMT picket line at Reading Railway Station, 21 June |
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The local and national media covered both Reading's and Oxford's industrial action, with Neil Adams reporting on the Socialist Party website: "We spoke with the pickets about the need to unite the action with other unions and everyone agreed this is needed. We distributed NSSN conference leaflets and invited the pickets to our Socialist Party public meeting tonight. There was enthusiasm for our ideas". ITV Meridian also covered the local actions here.  |
| TSSA members flank the RMT picket organiser in solidarity, 21 June |
On 21 June, BBC Radio Oxford broadcast a brief interview with John Partington, who outlined some of the justifications for the strike action. The excerpt can be heard here:
Solidarity support from across the left continued in significant numbers across the three strike days as the following gallery of photographs shows:
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| NEU members show solidarity at Reading Station, 23 June |
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| Oxford Station picket line, 23 June |
The picket at Reading Station was filmed on the morning of 23 June:
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| Oxford Station picket, 25 June |
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| TUSC & Socialist Party solidarity at Oxford Station, 25 June |
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| TSSA, RMT & ASLEF (x2) members in solidarity at Oxford Station, 25 June |
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| John Oversby (UCU, right) joining RMT picketers, Reading Station, 25 June |
The four days of industrial action by the RMT represented a shot across the bow of the employer, Network Rail. It is now for Network Rail - if they can loosen the restrains seemingly imposed by the government - to sit down with the trade unions (RMT, TSSA and Unite) and make a reasonable pay offer, provide guarantees on job security and address concerns which have been raised over health and safety. Otherwise - and with the TSSA and ASLEF also taking strike action - the next round of action will intensify the pressure and demonstrate the anger and frustration which years of belt-tightening without reward is provoking in railway workers.
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| Ali (NEU) and Danny McNamara (Unite Community) at Reading Station, 27 July |
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| John Partington (2nd left, TSSA) at Oxford Station, 27 July |
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| Chris Reilly (left, RMT) at Reading Station, 27 July |
