Thread by @RMTunion

🚨 | BREAKING
@RMTunion report reveals Fat Cat rail bosses award themselves eye watering annual pay hikes while lecturing rail workers on need for pay restraint and reform.
#RailStrike 🧵

On the day that workers take strike action in defence of their jobs, pay and conditions and railway services new RMT research has revealed that bosses at 7 rail companies have awarded themselves annual pay rises of between 15- 275% whilst workers have been subject to a pay freeze

At @FirstGroupplc, whose train companies include failing @AvantiWestCoast and @TPExpressTrains, the remuneration of the Chief Financial Officer and CEO increased by an eyewatering 275% and 168% in one year.

To put that into context, the jump in remuneration of the then First Group CEO Matthew Gregory was more than 800 times higher than the pay award offered to rail workers for last year!

The report also reveals that the since the pandemic the private train operators stand to make profits of £412 million by September this year, all funded by the taxpayer.

@RMTunion estimates that the train companies’ average annual profits since the pandemic, around £118m, are nearly double what the current pay offer would cost for one year (£60m)

🗣️ @RMTunion General Secretary Mick Lynch said:
"On the one hand Ministers tell workers they must tighten their belts and on the other they are using taxpayer’s money to fund eye watering pay rises and profits for the railway fat cats."

Please read the report and share this important thread:
rmt.org.uk/news/railway-f…