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The RMT union, which organised a 24-hour Tube strike that caused chaos for London commuters on Monday, is pondering a series of nationwide walkouts for the summer months.
And there are fears they will clash with strike action being organised by Unite and GMB unions in a dispute over pay, which would prompt the walkout of hundreds of check-in and ground staff employed by British Airways at Heathrow during the summer holiday period.
The move would heap more misery on British holidaymakers who are already suffering under a wave of cancelled flights that have left many stuck abroad for days unable to get home.
GMB says it is taking action after a ten per cent pay cut imposed on check-in and ground staff during the pandemic has not been reinstated – despite bosses having their pre-Covid pay rates reinstated. The ballot ends on June 23.
The prospect has thrown up concerns of a repeat of the 1978 ‘Winter of Discontent’ in which a slew of strikes by waste workers, gravediggers and lorry drivers resulted in squalid conditions for the nation under hapless Labour PM Jim Callaghan.
It comes as unions have threatened a national rail strike which could see Network Rail forced to operate on a skeleton timetable to reserve tracks for the movement of goods – with passengers only having access to key services.
Civil servants have also threatened national strike action that could bring disruption to key infrastructure such as ports, courts and airports, after being offered a two per cent pay rise, which they deemed as insufficient amid the ongoing cost of living crisis that is currently causing inflation levels of nine per cent.
The head of the Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association, Manuel Cortes, says the issue could lead to the biggest national disruption since the General Strike of 1926, while RMT boss Mick Lynch boasted the rail strike would be the “biggest in history” and would last for a “very, very long time”.
Fear they could even cause blackouts by stopping freight trains supplying critical power plants have led to emergency talks with Ministers.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps is understood to support a pay rise of as much as five per cent for thousands of rail workers in a bid to head off a summer of strikes but the Government want around £2billion shaved off the rail budget after bailing out the industry by more than £16billion during the pandemic.
The Treasury is said to be resisting any large increase, as it would also mean lifting the public sector pay cap. This was set at two percent in April, or three per cent in cases where “productivity gains” can be delivered.
But the RMT has suggested it wants pay increases to be closer to the RPI rate of inflation, currently 11.1 percent.
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