The General Secretary of the ASLEF rail union claimed that ministers have “behaved despicably” as it launched a new round of strikes in a long-running pay dispute.
Mick Whelan told GB News: “It's been five years since some of my members have had a pay rise. We're not looking for a pay rise for the pandemic years.
“Three years ago, when inflation started going through the roof, like many other sectors, we asked for a pay rise. We then found out that the people, the privateers that we work for, had done a deal with the Westminster Government not to give us a pay rise.
“There is a move afoot to rip up our terms and conditions. We still went into negotiations in good faith, and they behaved despicably.”
In a discussion during Breakfast with Eamonn Holmes and Isabel Webster, he continued: “Everything we've got, we pay for through productivity and so how many decades or half decades should we go without a pay rise in future?
“What, we're not allowed to have a pay rise? Also, I do remember the pandemic, being in those rooms where people were begging us to keep the country going while the people that we worked for were making hundreds of millions of pounds.
“They wouldn't have run those trains because they’re shareholder-oriented, they have no loyalty to the country, no loyalty to the passenger, no loyalty to their employees.”
He added: “You've seen it this week, where a company has been boasting about the free money they get off the Government.
“We see every company that we work with…that have been in our industry for 23 years, who are declaring hundreds of millions of pounds in profits, paying dividends to shareholders, yet see fit not to give us a pay rise.”
