good afternoon. the transport secretary says it s not for the government to intervene to try to prevent three days of strikes on the railways this week. grant shapps dismissed calls from the rmt union to get involved in the dispute as a stunt saying it s for the employers and unions to reach an agreement. mr shapps says the strikes would be an act of self harm. the labour leader, sir keir starmer, says the government wants the strikes to go ahead to sow division in society. here s our political correspondent, damian grammaticas. set to bring the rail network to a grinding halt from tuesday, they are the biggest strikes in decades. instead of 20,000 trains on a normal day, just one in five services may run. awful for people if they need to get to jobs and to work and to places. like, i ve come to visit my son here and if i needed to come back again then, no trains we re just going to have to put everything behind. i m going to test cricket next week and to my grandpa
in britain will close. labour, meanwhile, is trying to maintain a tricky balancing act. sir keir starmer doesn t want the strike to go ahead, but does he support the unions? he says the government wants a conflict. conservatives see political benefits. the strike should not go ahead but here s the truth. borisjohnson and grant shapps want the strikes to go ahead. they want the country to grind to a halt so they can feed off the division. instead of spending their time around the negotiating table, they re designing attackers. instead of grown up conversations to take the heat out of the situation, they re pouring petrol on the fire. and labour says the government hasn t engaged in talks since march. if no agreement is reached this week, it s possible the strikes won t be the last. damian grammaticas, bbc news.
discontent on the railways, this could go on for or months. then is room for for could go on for or months. then is room for for compromise - could go on for or months. then is room for for compromise and - could go on for or months. then is room for for compromise and we l could go on for or months. then is l room for for compromise and we can work together. people from the rmt who understand the finances. they have to understand that you can t just take taxpayers money and expect to just receive continual subsidies. we ve got to try and help ourselves as an industry and involve the pit trade unions and part of our industry but we can resolve it. this is resolvable. is resolvable. steve montgomery, chair of the is resolvable. steve montgomery, chair of the industry is resolvable. steve montgomery, chair of the industry body - is resolvable. steve montgomery, chair of the industry body the - is resolvable. steve montgomery, chair of the industry body the rail| chair of the indus
only apologise it, unions and management? we can only apologise that it, unions and management? we can only apologise that customers - it, unions and management? we can only apologise that customers are i only apologise that customers are going to be is inconvenienced as they have been that we have to be clear here that we have been talking to the trade unions a year since the pandemic started and then we started to see a significant drop off in customers and we are trying to look at how we work together with the trade unions and caveat modernisation and reform of the industry so that we can then try to take less money from the taxpayer and, ultimately, we do want to give our people pay increase, of course, because we understand the difficulties that people are experiencing at this moment in time but we have to get on with reform and that helps us deliver the next phase of giving people a pay rise. what the rmt would say to that pay offer, haven t had a pay rise, faced with thousan
these passengers in wrexham shared their thoughts on the strikes it is a pain, to be honest. nothing, really. i can say, yeah, ifeel sorry for them, they want a pay rise, just like the rest of us, but what can you do? we were going to go and visit grace s family. yeah, so we have had to kind of cancel that one! because we can t get down. i get the bus to work i every day to the courts. it goes under the tunnel. i guessed it would be - packed with everyone off the trains and on the buses, but you ve just got - to muck on, haven t you? joining me now is steve montgomery, chair of industry body the rail delivery group which is made up of train operating companies, the rail supply group and infrastructure owners network rail. he s also managing director of first rail. it isa it is a failure of both sides, isn t it, unions and management? we can