Commenting on today’s RMT ballot results, Mark Carne, Network Rail chief executive, said: “The railways are a vital public service and industrial action would have a massive impact on millions of passengers as well as freight distribution across Britain. It cannot be right that the unions can hold the country to ransom in this way.
“Our employees have received pay rises eight times higher than other public sector workers over the last four years and have now been offered a deal for the next four years that is unmatched elsewhere.
“Despite the very clear need to modernise our railways, we have offered a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies for the next two years. The unions have also rejected a number of proposals that would boost productivity, removing our ability to offer them more.
“We will do everything we can to keep our railways moving during these times of uncertainty and to stop the RMT from behaving in a way that will cause untold misery to our passengers and will hurt the economy. Fewer than half of RMT members at Network Rail have voted in favour of strike action and we urge union leaders to come back to the table for further discussions.”
