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Mr Harper said: \u201cIf they target our conference, then it’ll be very clear it is political.<\/p>\n
\u201cFundamentally, I want railway workers to get a decent pay rise, there’s a fair and reasonable offer on the table RMT members that work for train operating companies.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s the same offer pretty much as they accepted their members accepted for Network Rail where we resolved the dispute.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would ask them to put that offer to their members that their members make a decision.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cFor train drivers, the payoff for on the table will take the average salary of your train driver to \u00a365,000 a year for 35 hours a week.<\/p>\n
Don’t miss… <\/strong> We use your sign-up to provide content in ways you’ve consented to and to improve our understanding of you. This may include adverts from us and 3rd parties based on our understanding. You can unsubscribe at any time. More info<\/p>\n \u201cI think most Daily Express readers think that was very reasonable. Again, they should put it to their members.\u201d<\/p>\n But warning about the future of the industry, Mr Harper said he had warned the unions that government subsidies propping up the industry cannot continue if strikes prevent rail recovering from the pandemic and lockdown.<\/p>\n He said: \u201cPost pandemic, the number of people using the rail network is about 50 percent lower and revenues are about 30 percent lower.<\/p>\n \u201cI want to fix that by encouraging more people to use trains to come back onto the railways to close that gap, they’re not going to do so if they keep being disrupted by strike action.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd fundamentally, the way you protect the jobs, and the pay of the people that work in the rail industry is by getting more people to use rail.<\/p>\n \u201cThey’re not going to do that if they’re going on strike.\u201d<\/p>\n The government has already pushed through new legislation on railworkers and other providing a minimum service during strike action.<\/p>\n However, there are concerns that this may not be enough to prevent massive disruption.<\/p>\n
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