Arriva rail strikes set to go on to end of year

A series of nine more strike days by conductors on Arriva Trains Northern were announced last month on top of the one which was due to be taken on 28 June as Labour Research went to press.

The dispute is over the company's 4% pay offer, which Bob Crow, general secretary of rail union RMT, said "comes nowhere near bridging the gap between different grades at the company".

The management has referred to the dispute continuing until its franchise ends in February 2003.