The threat of further strike action on Nottingham Express Transit has been averted after members of the GMB Union accepted the latest pay offer. Negotiations have been ongoing for several months and one day of strike action was taken during November but after an improved offer was tabled all further strikes have now been cancelled.
The last pay offer announced publicly would have seen an 11% pay increase spread over three years. This was 3% last year, 4% this year and another 4% in June 2022. Both the 2020 and 2021 pay increases would have been backdated and paid to all employees as appropriate. It was reported a couple of weeks ago that this offer had also been rejected but now an offer has been approved by GMB Union members.
A spokesperson from GMB said: “This is a very welcome outcome to weeks of campaigning and hard work by Nottingham tram workers and GMB activists. From day one GMB members have been clear; any pay offer must meet the modest aspirations of Nottingham tram workers, be in line with inflation that set Nottingham tram workers on track to have pay parity with tram workers in other parts of the country. The offer presented to our members means they are able to work confident in knowing their wages will cover soaring inflation hitting working people. There is still more to be done and GMB will continue to campaign for proper reward and recognition for Nottingham’s tram workers. Nottingham’s tram workers are the life blood of the city, keeping businesses, families and working people moving. It’s time they got the reward and recognition they deserve. Public support from Nottingham residents has been overwhelming and we would like to put on record our thanks to them on behalf of our members”.
In response to the news a spokesman from NET added: “We are pleased that our latest offer has been accepted by union members and that their planned industrial action this month has been called off. We are now looking forward to working with colleagues on maintaining a robust service for customers over the festive period and beyond.”
Planned strikes for December are now cancelled (although these dates were never publicly revealed).