Most train services across the U.K. were canceled Saturday as thousands of rail workers staged the latest in a string of strikes over jobs, pay and working conditions.

The 24-hour walkout by 40,000 cleaners, signalers, maintenance workers and station staff was the third in a week, and part of a surging wave of strikes from workers seeking pay raises to keep up with inflation that is running at almost 10 per cent.

Only about 20 per cent of train services were expected to operate across the U.K. on Saturday, according to infrastructure operator Network Rail, with disruption spilling over into Sunday morning.

Ahead of the strike, the National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers' (RMT) General Secretary Mick Lynch stated in her letter to U.K. Transport Secretary Anne Marie Trevelyan that there was no imperative on the train companies to reach a meaningful settlement

Your Government continues to pay the Train Operating Companies, covering the cost of the dispute at taxpayers’ expense on condition that the train operators hand over control of the dispute and your Department agrees their ‘dispute handling plans’, Ms. Lynch stated.


The Attitude Towards The Workers Deteriorated

RMT accuse the government of preventing train companies — which are privately owned but heavily regulated — from making a deal.

We know that it’s difficult for the public, said Ms. Lynch. But what we see around the country are more and more people who are fed up with the way they are being treated at work, she added.

The rich seem to be getting richer and the poor seem to be worse off all the time, Ms. Lynch told Sky News.

The train managers on Avanti West Coast announced their strike on October 26 while RMT workers will protest on November 6 again.

Britain is seeing a growing number of strikes amid the country’s worst cost-of-living crisis in decades.