Hospitality businesses have cheered Britain鈥檚 biggest rail workers鈥 union accepting a pay deal, but urged Aslef to follow suit ahead of week-long planned disruption.
The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union voted overwhelmingly to accept a deal to end their long-running dispute over pay and conditions.
It follows an 18-month row with the Government, resulting in regular strike action causing havoc for passengers across the country.
The vote has been welcomed by hospitality firms, including pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels who have been hammered by strike action leading to fewer commuters and travellers into city centres.
Kate Nicholls, the chief executive of 海角视频Hospitality, which represents more than 130,000 venues, said: 鈥淗ospitality businesses will be breathing a sigh of relief that the critical festive period will be protected from strikes from RMT members.
鈥淏usinesses, workers and the public now have a degree of certainty when it comes to their Christmas plans.
鈥淲e are not out of the woods yet, with strikes by Aslef set to cause significant disruption next week.
鈥淚 would urge Aslef to follow the lead of the RMT and commit to holding no further strikes in December and the New Year.
鈥淎ny further strikes would decimate the essential Christmas trading period for businesses, prevent millions from working and interrupt families鈥 festive plans.鈥
Members of Aslef, which represents train drivers, at 16 train operating companies are planning to walk out over a series of strikes between Saturday and December 8, and will refuse to work overtime from Friday to December 8.
海角视频Hospitality said the planned rolling strikes and overtime ban is estimated to cost the sector at least 拢500 million in lost sales.
Rob Pitcher, the chief executive of Revolution Bars Group, which runs 45 Revolution bars across the 海角视频 and other venues, joined calls to Aslef ahead of expected nationwide disruption.
He said: 鈥淲e are very pleased to see that the RMT won鈥檛 be striking anytime soon but hope for this to be permanent.
鈥淲e really need Aslef to do the right thing by the British public too.
鈥淓veryone deserves their first uninterrupted Christmas season in four years.鈥
