London

Workers at the UK's biggest rail union, the RMT, have planned to walk out from 6 pm on December 24 until December 27 over differences related to pay. The strike will hit festive travel over the weekend. However, union officials insisted the impact on passengers will be limited because the strike targets engineering works on Network Rail. 

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Government minister Nick Gibb said a pay offer was rejected by the union before they even consulted its own membership. 

The strikes are in addition to the previously announced strikes. Over 40,000 workers across Network Rail and 14 train operating companies are staging 48-hour walk-outs on 13, 14, 16 and 17 December and on 3, 4, 6 and 7 January 2023. 

Also Read | UK inflation soars to 41-year high before Jeremy Hunt's autumn statement

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Gibb told BBC that the strikes will affect the Christmas plans of "hundreds of thousands of people up and down the country" and urged the union to call them off. 

Displaying regret, RMT general secretary Mick Lynch said the strikes were "caused by the government who are running the playbook and the strategy for the railway companies and directing what's going on".

He further said that passenger services will "wind down" earlier than usual on December 24. 

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Talking about the pay dispute, Lynch said that “we’ve got no choice” citing a “very poor” offer of a four per cent pay rise two years in a row which was rejected by the union.

Inflation in the country has topped 11 per cent and Lynch said that the train firms were holding the travelling public "to ransom". "We’ve been compelled to take this action because of the intransigence of the government".

Meanwhile, the public isn't happy with the strike, especially since it affects their holiday travel plans. Thirty-two per cent of citizens strongly oppose the strikes and 19 per cent are somewhat against it, according to a YouGov survey.

(With inputs from agencies)

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