Unions plan full week of rail strikes

Union bosses are to escalate the National Express East Anglia dispute with a full week of strikes next month.

The warning came as talks to try to avert 48 hours of strikes, starting at midnight tonight, continued at Acas, the conciliation service.

The week-long strike will begin on Monday, 21 September, and last until midnight the following Saturday.

Keith Norman, general secretary of Aslef, the train drivers' union, said: "The blame for this is purely with National Express. We have been talking with the company and will continue
negotiations, but any movement from them has been minuscule.

"This afternoon, the union's executive committee endorsed six successive days of strikes from 21 September."

Although no decision by the two other unions, the RMT and TSSA, has yet been taken on further strikes, they are certain to back the Aslef move.