Thread by @RMTunion

🚨 Train company pandemic profits top £300 million and set to reach £400 million by September:
If reinvested back into the rail industry, £310 million would have been enough to fund a 10.6% pay rise for the Train Operating Companies’ staff 🧵
#SupportRailWorkers

Private Train Operating Companies at the heart of the long-running rail dispute have made more than £300 million in profits since the government put them on new contracts when the Covid-19 pandemic hit, @RMTunion research reveals.
issuu.com/rmtunion/docs/…

While rail workers have had their pay frozen in the same period, DfT data shows that the private train operators made £310 million in taxpayer-funded profits between March 2020 and September 2022. By September this year, that figure will be in excess of £400 million.

All of this profit can be turned into shareholder dividends.
This is in addition to the estimated £300 million of taxpayers’ money spent indemnifying the companies so that they don’t lose a penny as a result of strike action.

@RMTunion general secretary Mick Lynch said: "While the Secretary of State and @RailDeliveryGrp spin about the need for reform to fund pay rises, the truth is that the money was always there but it’s being salted away by a gang of profiteers and their mates in the government."

Read the full story here;
rmt.org.uk/news/train-com…